A New Beginning
by TheBlazingCyclone
Summary: It was just a regular day. Nothing special. Not until I found the box. After that, life gets a little bit...interesting. This is a story about a boy named Joseph Honō, who finds a strange box in the woods. Follow his journey as he either becomes one of order, chaos, or the balance in between. (Rated M for use of language)
1. Chapter 1- The box

There was nothing different about this day from any other day. I had just finished school, and got dropped off by the bus. From there on, I made my usual walk back home. Hello, my name is Joseph Honō, and I'm your average Canadian highschooler. Second year in highschool actually, so I'm Fifteen years of age. I'm 6'2, Blue eyed with some grey towards the center, and my hair colour is a dark brown. I was no different than any other kid. Nothing special. Not until that day.

As I was walking home, I saw the same scenery I saw every day: A river on the other side of the road, and a little bit of forestry to my right. There are days when I would go into the forest just to take a slightly longer walk. This was one of those days. As I went into the natural path made by other people (and wildlife), I noticed something that struck me as odd. There was no noise. Usually, I'd hear the occasional car from the road, or the birds and other wildlife from all around me in the forest. But there was no noise. Just a eerie silence. Even though this struck me as odd, I still kept going. Then, I heard a noise. A noise a would never have expected to hear. The sound of something heavy hitting the earth like it was dropped from the top of a one story house. The sound came from somewere out of my site off the way of the path. So I, with my infinetly brilliant wisdom, went to check it out.

What I found was not what I expected. Well, I didn't know what to expect, but t surely wasn't this. What I found looked to be like a metal box, like cargo container, about half my size. I noticed it had some sort of keypad on it flashing an assortment of lights. I decided it was best not to tamper with that. So, I inpected the box some more, and found a symbol: A white snowflake. Something clicked at the back of my mind, like I've SEEN this somewere before. But, as I was trying to remember where I've seen it, the air seemed to feel as if it were getting charged, like as if lighting was about to strike. Then, there was a tremor, an earthquake, shaking the earth and knocking me off my feet. Then the strangest thing of all happened: I started to float. Moot just me, but the box, and every loose rock and things of the assortment started to float as well. Soon after that a ball that seemed to be something resembling a blue sun, formed just above the area. Paralyzed by panicked, I could do nothing as it expanded, taking in everything, including me. As it took me in, I faded into blackness.


	2. Chapter 2- New world

I woke up with a pounding in my head, and a sick feeling in my stomach. "Ugh, shit" I said as I got up, feeling nausea wash over me. I look around, and I notice something. I'm still in A forest but...it's different.

I walk over to one of the trees "these trees, there...thicker...older too." I say as I examine the tree. Then, I look up. "And much taller than the ones back home." I said with a bit of confusion in my voice. At this point, I start to worry. "Where am I? What happened?" Then, I look at the metal box. "You might have some answers about this" I said as I walked over to it. I went to the keypad and examined it.

"Hmm." I said with some thought. Then, I tapped a couple of numbers and a robotic, female voice spoke from a speaker that was in the top left corner of the keypad. "Access Granted. Welcome, Mr. Schnee." Said the voice with no emotion. "Schnee?" I thought. "Wait...but that means...no...could it?".

As I was thinking of the possibility of a certain event at hand, the box started to make some noises, like the sounds of a key code locked door opening, but much bigger. Then, it spit into four segments, and opened up like a metal flower with four petals. What was at the center, was what seemed to be a...knife? "What the hell?" I thought as I walked towards the knife.

I picked it up, and examined it. It didn't look like anything special. Just a 8-inch blade with a leather grip. It felt that it was warm to the touch, and seemed to be vibrating at a low level, just barley noticeable. "Ok, I got to admit, this is weird. Even if this IS where I think it is, how did I get here? And where's the-" just as I was about to finish my sentence, a low growl came from behind me.

Slowly, I turned my head to the noise. What I saw, made me want to make run like a Olympic sprinter. It was mainly the colour black, with bleached white bone patrusions coming from several parts of its body, mainly it's back elbow, forearms, and shoulders. It's head, had a equally as white bone mask with eyes red as blood. It snarled, then let out a roar. -Grimm..." I finally finished.

The Beowolf started to edge closer to me, sniffing, as if to see if I was edible or not. But that, was about all I could register, since the only thing going throughy head was "shit shit shit holy shit.". I wanted to yell. I wanted to run. I wanted to do SOMETHING. But my body, it refused to do anything of the sort.

Soon, the Beowolf was right near me, sniffing me. Then I stopped noticed something. The monster it...seemed to be confused. Like it found something that it didn't expect to find. It clearly didn't like this discovery, since it went on its rear legs, and let out a angry roar, raising a hand-like-paw to behead me. That's the moment my body decided to move. I dove to the side, narrowly getting hit by the deadly strike. I got up, and held the knife up, pointing it a the demon. "Stand back or...I'll cut your tail off!" I yelled in a desperate attempt to intimidate the creature.

It did nothing of the sort. The monster roared again, followed by a jump and slashing attack. I tried to dodge again, but it learned, and cought me on the back, rakeing its claws across it. I let out a scream of pain and a bit of anger. "You...I'm gonna...oh shit this hurts..." I mumbled to myself as I got back up, legs shaking from the amount of pain my body was in.

I turned towards the beast, panting as I started to see stars. "Come...and get it.". This made no sense, as I charged towards it, making me come get it. But, I was in shock and wasn't thinking straight, so my ability to say cool lines as I run to my death was a bit iffy. It moved back a little, surprised by my clearly suicidle counter-Attack.

But this Attack caused the beast to stagger a bit, leaving its chest wide open. So, with all my remaining strength, I leapt towards the beast and drove the knife into the beasts chest. The wolf them let out a pain-stricken yelp, and shook my off. I landed on my back, which caused me to wither in pain. "Crap crap, oh crap this hurts..." I said, with also a number of choice words.

When I looked at the Grimm, it was slowly coming to a stop, with no more sounds coming from it. When I looked at the knife, I saw that it wasn't even at the heart, just a bit more to the right side of it. "Maybe...its heart is actually there?" I said to myself with a questioning tone. I then limped over to the knife, and pulled it out. What I saw should not have been possible. "...blood?" I said as I looked at the knife.

This had to be impossible. Grimm don't have blood. Or at least, as far as I know they don't. Then I noticed something else. The grimms body showed no signs of deterioration, staying solid. "This is getting weirder and weirder by the second." I mumbled under my breath. Then, there was some more rustling in the bushes. All around me this time.

"Well that's just great, more of them." I thought in annoyance. I readed my knife, ready to make a last stand, when armoured figures emerged carrying firearms, with all of them trained on me. "Freeze! Drop your weapon!" Said one slightly to my left. And I did what he said. I raised my hands just at shoulder hight, and dropped the knife. "Hey hey, take it easy. I'm not a-" I would have kept going, then I noticed something they all had on there chest armour. A symbol of a red, snarling wolf with a scar across its eye.

Then I looked at their faces, and saw that they were wearing masks of metal. After I saw that, the only words that came out of my mouth were "well, this I just peachy, isn't it?". I asked no one in particular, just said it because for the sake of doing it. I Was about to say something else, but then they all started to advance on me. One of them, I assumed was the leader of this little troop, since his mask was more decorative than the rest, came up to me and pointed the gun right up in my face.

"Who the hell are you?!" He said in a voice filled with anger. Now, I would of said something like a smart ass, but he was a tad bigger than me. And he had a gun. So, using some natural thinking, a replied in a calm matter. "I don't even know, I just woke up here." I said through a facade of calm. He put the gun closer to my face. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He said in a annoyed tone. "I'd tell you if I knew". I replied in the same calm manner. "Boss!" Yelled one of them to my right. "What is it Jackson?" yelled the one in front of me back to his comrade in a commanding tone. "It's gone!" Yelled back the one named Jackson.

"What do you mean, it's gone?!" Yelled back their captain. He then walked away from me, letting me relax a bit. I turned towards were he went, and I noticed that a couple of them, including the captain, checking the metal box, looking for something. "Who opened it already?!" Screamed the captain in outrage. Then, they all turned to me, then looked at my feet. "The knife." I thought. "This is the thing there looking for?". Just then, they all trained there weapons on me, and started to advance on me again. "We're taking him in." Said the leader. "Whack him". "Whack him? Oh no. Not aga-". That's all I had left to think about as one soldier hit me with the butt of his gun on the side of my head.


	3. Chapter 3- The doctors

"This cannot be healthy." I think to myself as I start to wake up again. I try to move, but find myself chained by my arms and legs to what seems to be a circular metal facing. Then I take note that it is suspended in the middle of what seems a circular room, with a cat walk leading from the side of the room with a shutter-looking door at the end to just below me. At the end of the catwalk, there was a little control-center like area, with a bunch of screens and keyboards.

Then I heard voices coming from the other side, gradually coming closer.

"-great success! These will be revolutionary!"

"Calm down. Its not a guaranteed success. It might end up just killing him."

"Have faith, friend. This will work."

The doors open, revealing two men in lab coats having a conversation. One was slightly old, showing signs of aging with streak black hair that was starting to grey. He looked about mid hight, at 5'6-5'8ish. He also seemed to be hyped up on enough sugar to give a elephant a heart-attack. He kept fiddling with his coat, taping them at his side, just looking like a okay dressed mad man. The other one was definitely younger, maybe early 20s and his hair was a dirty blond. He looked like he was on the tall side, maybe at 6'2. Other than that, they were wearing the same thing, which was a lab coat, white buttoned under shirt, and jeans with work boots. I don't know why they had the boots. Didn't look like they were into construction.

"Hello!" Yelled the older one with a happy tone that was directed towards me. "How are you enjoying your stay here?". I was about to answer, but I threw up what ever was left of my lunch. "It seems he doesmt like it here" snickered the younger one. "Quite you". Said the older one to the younger one in a friendly but stern voice. He then turned to me with a smile that sent a shiver up my spine. "Sorry about the soldiers and their brutality, they tend to be a bit rough at times to our...guests." . "No shit" was my only response. The younger one seed to get a bit angry at my choice of words, then started to move towards the setup at the end of the catwalk. "Wait a minute" said the older one, catching the young ones shoulder. "He's got every right to be mad, since how he was treated." He said with a stern voice. He turned back to me. "Again terribly sorry about the treatment. The brutes just love to hit people over the head!" He said with a laugh. He coughed to stop himself. "Well allow me to introduce myself. I am Doctor Turons, and this is-."

"Doctor Leonardo"

"Will you stop that?"

"You were taking too long"

"I was not!"

The two started to break into an argument, but then I called out "Um...hello?". The two didn't seem to hear me. "Hey!" I yelled out, causing them to turn towards me. "Oh, terribly sorry." Said Doctor Turons. "Well, let's cut to the chase". He walked to the computers and started typing into the keyboards. "Do you know why your here?" He asked without looking up.

"No clue" I said, trying to crane my neck to see the screens. "This is why" said Doctor Turons as he hit a couple more keys. Then, two screens moved up and turned towards me, showing me what seemed to be blood cells. Then I noticed something. The left screen showed blood cells, but they had what seemed to be tiny, crystals of different colours with the label "regular blood". The screen to the right, showed regular blood cells, with the label "unknown".

Then it clicked in my head. The people from RWBY were born from dust. At a scientific view, the DNA of the locals here should have traces of dust crystals in their DNA. With all the evidence that I have been given, there is without a doubt that "this is Remnant." I mumbled. "Hm, you say something?" Asked Doctor Turons. "No, nothing." I quickly answered.

Then Doctor Leonardo stepped forward. "Your DNA is highly unregular compared to the DNA found in humans and faunes alike." Then a question popped in my head. "Wait, if this is a White Fang facility, shouldn't you both be faunes?" I asked. Doctor Turons laughed at this. "Why, yes we are! We're both actually bird faunes." As he said this, his lab coat fluttered, like there was something under the coat trying to get out. Same with Doctor Leonardo, except it was just a short flutter.

"Back to the topic at hand." said Doctor Leonardo. "Your DNA is, as said already, quite strange. It's shows no signs of dust within you. As you may already know, humans and the faunes were born from dust itself, and the grim were born from the darkness." He then typed some commands into the console and the screens switched to pictures of humans and faunes on the left screen, and pictures of Grimm on the right screen.

"But you..." He typed another command and a smaller screen moves in between the two larger ones, with a picture of me on it, in an unconscious state. "Your different. Your DNA shows that your...species of man was created a different way, much more complicated than ours, so complex that I can't even decipher your genetic coding." He said in slight annoyance.

"And also, all beings of light have a soul, their power. And the Grimm are soulless, hell bent on destroying beings with souls. You however, have a soul, but not as quite." He said flicking off some dust off his shoulder. "Your soul is...in between light and dark, just about to topple into either the light or the darkness. Your neither of order or chaos, but more of a balance of both of them."

Then Doctor Tupor stepped forward, with a disturbing grin. "But this is great! It means that you are like a blank canvas, ready to be painted on! And this-" he then typed another code into the console. "-is the brush!" Just then, then upper part of the room opened, with a assortment of robotic arms coming down, all either being grabbers or ones with syringes. At that point, I got nervous. "Hey hey hey! The hell is this?!" I said with more fear than anger. Then doctor Turons spoke again. "We know so little about the Grimm because of their thing to evaporate after death, but this-" he typed in the computer again. "-Solved that problem."

A circular hole opened up next to him, and a small pedestle came up with a knife on top of it. "This blade is of ancient origins, from the time of the first men. This blade, keeps the Grimm in solid form. Sadly, we cannot replicate this blade, for its metal is unknown, and we don't want to risk destroying the blade." He then picked up the blade. "With this blade, we finally started our dream experiments! Grimm genetics!" He then turned to me.

"Each of those syringes is filled with a combination of different Grimm types, mainly the local ones in the area." He started to get exited. "You will have the strength of a ursa major, the eyesight of a nevermore, skin strong as a boarbatusks plating, the hunting prowess of a Beowolf, and the ferocity of a deathstalker." He then took a breath. "If you survive, you'll be the most dangerous organism on this planet." I went to protest against his, but he interrupted me. "Sorry, but we must go on." He then pressed a button, and the arms came to life.

The ones with grabers grabbed my arms, legs, and the rest of my body, holding them in place. Then, the syringe arms and started injecting the DNA into me, sending a burning sensation through my body. "Don't worry! We tested this out on the blood sample we got from you already! It's a 87% chance of working!" He yelled over my screams of pain. I couldn't even say anything, all I could do was just yell. The pain lasted for a good ten minutes. When it was done, the chains released me, dropping me to the floor below. As I got up, my body started to cool off, but I still felt like I just came back from being in a oven.

From above, I could hear cheers of joy. "Yes! We did it! The first ever human-Grimm hybrid in existence, and were the creators!" Said Doctor Turons with glee as he jumped around. "But how do we know he didn't just absorb the blood, and not merge with it?" Asked the skeptical partner. Turons then stopped and smiled at him. "We just have to test run him." He then went to the console and pressed a button, and garage like doors opened all around me, with eyes like rubies stareing back at me from the dark. Ursas then emerged from the doors, with 6 of them in total. I then sighed and raised my fists. " good god let me wake up."


	4. Chapter 4- The Blood of the Beast

I honestly hate my life right now.

First, I was attacked in the woods by a Beowolf, which the wound on my back I got from it I can feel now since I can move, and it feels like it was just sown up. Then, I was knocked out by some White Fang assholes, which has given me a slight pounding in the back of my head, injected with some weird Grimm blood shit, that I can FEEL inside my body moving, which is weird in itself. And to top it off, I'm thrown into a god damn arena with a bunch of overgrown black polar bears. So to say the least, there just massive. Standing at 10 feet tall each. My only reassurance was that these things were only minor ursa, since they didn't have an immense amount of bone plating and spines on them like majors did. But, this didn't make them any less intimidating.

The Grimm started to inch closer to me, sniffing like they were trying to determine whether I was food or not. "It seems that the fact that your not wholy a being of pure light is confusing them to some extent" said a voice over some intercoms. "Turons! Let me out of here you crap covered feather duster!" I yelled up at the intercoms. "I'm afraid I can't do that. You see, to get results, we need a test of some sort. And what better test than a test of strength! Kill the ursa, and the test is complete." He said with a laugh. "Great. I'm a Gonna die. If I don't though, I'm gonna kill him." I thought to myself.

The Grimm then let out thunderous roars. "Seems like I'm on the menu." I said as I started to back off. One of them charged, obviously the most impatient of the six. I dived to the side, but not fast enough, as it caughte by my legs and sent me flying. I hit the wall with thwack, knocking the air out of me. "Shit...they're...much...wider." I managed to wheeze out between breaths. "This is bull crap. I don't deserve this. Why is this happening? What have I done?!" I say as I started to get up. "This is not how I'm gonna die! Nuh uh! NO...FUCKING...WAY!" I yell, with a pulse of energy coming off me as I say those last few words. The ursa are pushed back a few meters, two of them falling over completely. Turons is saying something on the intercoms, but I don't care. I only care about ripping apart these ursa infront of me. So with that, I charged, letting out a cry for blood.

I felt power courseing through my body. My eyesight was tinged red. I felt like I could take on an entire army and wouldn't even break a sweat. I made a mad dash towards the nearest ursa, and I made a lung for it. It swung it large arms at me, but they were slower than before. I ducked underneath it's arm, and punched up into its chest, sending a pulse of black shredding through its chest, making it fly limply back. I turned for the others, but found one of the other ursa about to bite down on me. I catch it by its jaws, and start pushing outwards. I then replace one of my hands with my foot, and bring back my fist, getting ready to do the same as last time. I punch down into its massive maw, sending a force down it throat, and out the other end. It then also went limp like a oversized stuffed toy, and fell to the ground. The other ursa edge around me cautiously, aware of my ability to kill them. But I didn't give them a chance to wait around. I attacked first. I grabbed one of the ursa by its front, and threw it towards another, knocking them to the ground. I then jumped up and grabbed the raftings under the catwalk, and used it to push myself down towards the two ursa, bringing both fists back. As I neared them, I punched with both my fists, and sent a blast through the two, turning them into flat, furry, boney, grease spots. Two more left. These two seemed to get the ideas of there situation, and started to claw at the doors they came in. "Tsk tsk tsk. You guys started it, now you want to run away?" I said as I walked towards them. "If you start a fight-" I grabbed one of them by its spines, and pulled it to the ground. "-you best finish it!" I said as I punched into its face, cracking its masked face and cratering it. I looked at my hand. "Hm...that should have done more." I turned towards last ursa. "Eh, who cares?" I made a running punch at it, making it fly a bit to the side. Again, it was not as powerful. Then again, I felt...drained, Like I haven't slept in days. The red ting was starting to leave my vision. "Crap, gotta end this now." I said under my breath. I jumped up onto the ursa'a chest, and started to beat on its face, putting every last thing I got into my punches. It's mask started to crack, so I focused on that area. My body felt heavier and heavier with each attack I made on the beast. Soon, it stopped moving, and as soon as it did, I fell to the side, breathing heavily.

When the pounding in my ears subsided, I was met with the booming sound of the intercom. "-zing strength! But it seems to be only temporary. But this is great! His aura isn't even awoken, and he has the strength of an elder Grimm!" Yelled Turons over the intercom. "But, he is even more of a threat. How do you think to contain him?" Said the voice of Leonardo on the speakers. "Like this!" Yelled Turons. Two robotic arms came down to me, one with grabbers, and one with some type of ring on it. The one with grabbers held me down, even though I couldn't even move to begin with. The other one opened and closed on my neck, made a clicking noise, and let go, leaving a collar on my kneck. "And, if he be's...uncooperative, we can give him a bit of a reminder." He said with a bit of sinisterness to his voice. Without warning, a electric shock was sent through my body, making me spasm in pain. A smaller set of doors opened on the floor I was on, smaller than the doors the ursa came out of. Out came was three white fang member, one driving something like a forklift, and the other two walking along next to it. One was a male, with a strong stature. He had red hair, horns of the same colour on top of his head, and just a sword at his side. The other one was a girl, that was a given. She had black hair, a pair of cat ears on top of her head, and a sword as well, but on her back. These two...couldn't be who I think they are. Blake...isn't even part of the white fang anymore. And Adam looks just like a regular grunt, in the same attire as a regular white fang soldier. In fact, without the key details they have in the show, I would have never guessed it was them. My only conclusion was that I came to a different time period in the RWBY a universe, possibly a few years back. The cage opened, and Adam grabbed me by the back of my neck and threw me in. Blake stepped forward like she wanted to say something, but quickly resigned from the idea, and returned to her regular position.

"Please take subject 001 to his holding area." Said Turons over the intercom. The one driving the forklift obliged to the command, and turned the vehicle towards the exit, driving it through. Blake and Adam kept they're positions on either side of the cage, like guards watching over a wild animal. As we went down the hallway, we came to another set of doors and drove through them. I crawled to the side were Blake was, and started to talk to her. "Explain to me what the fuck is going on please?" I said in a slightly annoyed tone. "Your being taken to your holding cell." She whispered back. "What are you people gaining from this? What's the point of keeping me here?" I asked back. "That's not for me to decide. I just work here." She answered. I sat back, exhausted. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." I said to her. She turned her head to me. "Excuse me?" She said in confusion. "It's a saying where I come from. It means that solving violence with violence will end up just ruining everything. This entire situation, will just end in cinders. "I said to her. "But we must keep fight back! We were given no choice!" She yelled back at me with anger in her voice.

"And you plan to solve it by starting a war?"

"What are you-"

"Solving violence with violence creates even more violence."

"We weren't given a choice!"

"There's always a choice."

"You don't know that!"

"Neither do yo-"

I was interrupted by a shock coursing through my body.

"Enough of this you two!"

We both turned to Adam, who was holding a a small remote. "Keep that up, you little crap, and you'll get even more of this." He said as he waved the remote a little. "Adam! What are you-" Blake started but was cut off by Adam. "I'm teaching the prisoner a lesson. His kind is our enemy, so I will treat him like one." He said with venom in his voice. The ride went on for a couple of minutes longer in silence. Then, we came to a room labeled 001 on the top. "We're here." Said the driver. He then pulled up to it and placed the front of the cage against the door. Both the door and the caged open, and the back end of the cage pushed forward and knocked me in.

When I got up and turned to the door, it had already closed. I examined the room, and it was kinda big. It was 10x10 metres in size, with a single bed in the corner with a sink next to it. When I examined the top of the room, I saw circular lens-like points on the ceiling, most likely for more of those robotic arms. There was cameras in each corner of the upper portion of the room, covering every angle, with a speaker under each. Then, a voice came over the speakers. "You best get some rest, you got a long day ahead of you." The lights that were in the room dimmed to an almost black light. With no other option, I went to the bed and tried to rest, knowing that I'm probably gonna be here a while.


	5. Chapter 5- The Escape

I woke up and rubbed my face.

I looked at the calender next to my bed. "Heh. Two years today." And it was true. It has been two years today since I came to this place. Two years since I left earth on some weird...cross-dimensional rift. That was my theory on how I got here. Didn't tell anybody else here yet that. They still think I'm just some human with a genetic mutation. So I went along with it, saying that my parents were travellers, and I lost some some time before they found me. When they asked why I was in the forest, I say that I was scavenging for food. They thought it was believable, since Grimm took some time to reconize me a prey.

I went over the the sink next to my bed, and splashed water in my face. I looked in the mirror, and met a slightly bearded face. "Could be worse. I could be dead." And it was true, since I have been put to tests everyday, all testing my power. My semblance isn't even released, and I'm more powerful than some of the elites here. There was a point where they were gonna do it, but decided against it. "He's unruly enough. He doesn't need another weapon under his belt." And it's true, I can be a bit...temperamental. But the shock collar does the trick. "Fucking thing." I complained as I tugged it. I think there fear is that my semblance might involve electricity, so that I may stop the threat of my collar. I laughed a little at this. "Damn right they should be worried." I said with a small laugh.

There was a buzz from the intercoms. "Breakfeast is here, Joseph." I waved my hand in response to the speaker. "Let me guess shit, shit, and some more shit?" I called back. "Your damn lucky your a special case, or else you would have been killed a LONG time ago." Said the voice with anger. It was true, I'm a special case, since I'm the only survivor of the subjects that were put to the Grimm Genetics Program. They all either died apon injection, or died shortly afterwards. "Eh, how about you guys let me go outside, have a stroll? I'll be nicer then." I replied with a luagh. "Ha ha, very funny. We can't let that happen, not after last time." He probably talking about how I made a run for it. They shocked me before I could get away. But, as I was being contained again, i overheard from the soldiers saying that I was just about to get out of signal when I ran. "500 metres." I mumbled to myself. That's how far I guessed I have to run. Maybe further since then. The buzz went off again. "Get your damn food." Said the voice on the intercom, clearly angry. "I'm going, I'm going."

I went to the door and pressed a button, signaling that I was there. A slide opened in the door, revealing a two-way glass with a slide at the bottom of it a wait hight to pass things through to the other side. Like my food, for example.

The person carrying my breakfast was short in stature, compared to me. She wore a mainly black somewhat formal looking jumpsuit around a slender body, with white clothing underneath, had black hair that went down to the base of her shoulder blades, and had Amber eyes that seemed to be studying and calculating everything they see. What was the finishing touch was the pair of cat ears on top of her head.

"Hey there Blake. What's on the menu this fine morning?" I asked with fake enthusiasm. "Some leftovers from last night. The usual." She said with a smirk. I held where my heart is. "Oh Blake, these won't do. If this keeps going, I'll die!" I said as I faked a death. "Save me time from coming down and giving you food every morning." She said with a more obvious smirk than before. Ever since I was brought here, Blake and Adam had been assigned to me as my caretakers. It basically meant that they were the ones who were enlisted to put me down if I got...out of control. But since then, they both rose in the ranks, so they had no business with me anymore. Adam kept away from we when he could, since I was a nuisance to him by what he says. Blake however, was not as high of a rank as him, but was given the same privileges as him. She says that she's still made to bring my food, but I called bullshit on that a long time ago. I didn't tell her that though. It better to keep the only sort-of-friend you have happy then to make them mad. It's happened before. Very silent week that was.

"So what's happening on the outside?" I asked her as i are some bread from the bowl. Since her upgrade in ranking, she had a lot more free time and power to her disposal. "Not well." She said with some sadness as she put her head down. "There has been a change of plans." This got my attention. "What do you mean plans have changed?" I asked in confusion and slight worry. She looked up at me. "Word is that...its time to strike. We already had some military power to begin with, but now...now we're attacking supply trains and destroying shops that don't serve us faunes." She said with a bit of anger. "But...didn't you people do that already?" I asked with slight confusion. "That wasn't the white fang! Those were just some loose cannons who tried to solve it with violence, and posed as us. No were no better than criminals! "She yelled in anger and punched the glass, shaking it slightly. "Ok then. What are you gonna do?" I asked her. She looked at me with slight confusion and a bit of anger. "What are yo-"

"Are you gonna stay or go?"

"Excuse m-"

"You clearly don't like where this is going. Why not just escape? Move away?"

"It's not my choice to choose!"

"Then let me help."

These words made her look at me like I was a mad man, which at this point, I probably am. "What do you mean you can help? How can you possibly help me?" She said with a tiny bit of anger a the end of her sentences. I rolled my eyes. "Come on Blake, your smart. What do you have that a shit ton of the other people want here?" I asked like it was obvious. "I don't-" I cut her off before she could finish. "Access. Access to a lot of rooms. Especially a room-" I grabbed my collar and shook it. "- that has access to this annoying peice of shits lock control." Her eyes widened as I went on. "This thing is controlled wirelessly, even the lock. Believe me. I tried to unlock it, but there was nothing to unlock. Plus, I overheard it over training." She narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean by that?" She said with suspicion. "Your fellow faunes here are pretty loose lipped with each other about information." I said with a laugh. "Ok, let's say I can do that. Then what?" She said with a questioning look. "You know the airfield that's not far from here?" I asked. "Yes, but how did you-"

"Remember my little escape?"

"Yes?"

"It wasn't just an escape attempt."

"You did recon?"

"While running, yes."

"Why?"

"Had a hunch."

"On what?

"On you wanting to leave."

This caught her of guard. "What do you mean by that?" She asked. I sighed. "Like I said, I had a hunch that you'd want to leave, and I'm right, right?" She looked down and started to think. I couldn't just say that she was destined to leave anyways. I had to keep it under cover that I'm not if this...world. "Okay fine. I'll do it. This isn't the white fang I knew before. It's, something else." She said with a sigh. This got me excited. "Great! Aw man, this is gonna be awesome!" I said with enjoyment. "Two years and you haven't grown up the slightest." She said with a smirk and rolled her eyes. I stuck my tongue out at her. "So, when you think possible?" She thought about that, then gave me an answer. "Tommorow, my regular guard patrol route passes the doors the room with the lock. Around 2:30 I think." I clapped my hands together. "Alright, see you then." We said are goodbyes and she left. I closed the door and and slumpt against it. "This is gonna get rough."

THE NEXT DAY

I sat on my bed, tapping the wall with my finger. I looked at the one window I had. "Almost time." A couple of years without a clock and you learn how to read the sun. Then, my collar started to beep. I got up, and it fell off. "Get your ass moving, don't keep me waiting." Said a voice on the intercom. I smiled, and charged the door.

"Find him! Don't let him escape!" Yelled one of the white fang members. I smiled and made my way to the airfield. When I got there, I found Blake, and some white fang grunts with her, standing guard next to a bullhead. I smiled and walked over to them. "Well it's seems I'm late." I said with a laugh. The guards saw me and raised there guns, but one was hit with the butt of a sword. The other took notice of this and turned his attention to his comrade, but then was sent flying by a fist to the side of his face. "I was getting worried you got captured."

"Aw, you worried?"

"You know what I mean."

"Mhm. Yep. Sure I do."

She gave me an annoyed look and got onto the bullhead. I laughed and followed her in. We both got to the front and sat down. "Well, you know how to drive this thing?" I asked. "I've been in some simulations." She answered me. "So not really." Was my only answer. "Shut up" answered back. She flipped some switchs and the machine came to life, with lights flickering on and the engine starting to purr. It lifted off the ground, and Blake tilt the handle forward, and the bullhead started to move. We flew out of the area, and moved above the clouds.

"They must have seen us." Blake said in disbelief. Suddenly, a red light started to flash with a warning alarm going off. I looked at the radar, and saw that three dots were chasing ours. I turned to her and squinted at her. "Ok, my bad." She mumbled. A voice came from the speaker in the middle of the Dashboard. "This is an unregistered take off. State your purpose, or be taken down." Said a gruff voice from the speaker. Before Blake had time to answer, I grabbed the handle and pitched it back, sending us skyward. "Are you insane!?" She called over the turbulence. "A bit yeah! Just follow my lead!" I called back. I then pressed a button, and it was sent to auto pilot. "How'd you know that would be autopilot!?" She called again. "I didn't!" I called back. She gave me a funny look, but then there was another beeping, this one getting steadily more faster. "Shit." I thought to myself. With out any time to react, I grabbed Blake and went to the back. I opened the door, and she widened her eyes, like she knew what I was going to do. "Hang on!" I yelled. I didn't give her time to answer. I jumped out of the aircraft and fell with her iny arms. I looked up, and saw three streaks of fire and smoke head towards our bullhead, and collided with it, destroying it on impact. I looked down, and saw that we were pretty far up.

As we plummeted towards the ground, I had time to think. Could we have pretended to be an emergency evact for a VIP? I thought against it, and then thought of a landing strategy. As we got closer, I got an idea. A stupid one, that's for sure, but I had nothing else better. I looked at Blake, and she had her head buried in my shoulder, her hands clenched bone white on my shirt, saying I hate like a chant. The ground was 200 feet away. I readied my legs. 100 feet. I bent them enough to lessen the impact. 50 feet. This is gonna suck. We hit the ground, and the earth around broke in a spider web fashion. My legs strained to give out, but I held them, even though it was the worst feeling I ever felt. I dropped to the ground, and started to pant. I noticed that Blake was still clinging to me. I tapped her on the head. "Hey, guess what?" She slowly moved her head to face me. "What?" She asked miserably. "We live!" I threw my hands up as I said this. She punched me in the gut, which made me wince. "So..." I looked around. "Where to?"

We made it to the edge of a wall. A big one. From what Blake told me, this was Vale. "Vale Huh. So, how do we get in? I don't technicly exist, because my parents never reported me, and the white fang would find out that you left them. Or at least, know where you are." I pointed out. "Then how do you suppose we get in?" She asked. I smiled. She did not like that. "I got an idea."

As I climbed the wall, she kept reminding me that I had a death with or something. "I avoided death plenty of times." I answered back every once in a while. As we got to the top, I noticed one thing. "Holy crap this place is big." And it was. It looked like it was the size of Toronto, maybe bigger. "Well, I'm jumping down. You coming?" I held out my hand to her. She rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand. "Like I got a choice." I laughed and picked her up and jumped down.

We landed in some alleyway, and scared some homeless people. I put her down and and looked around. "I think we should split up." I said blankly. "What? Why?" She looked at me with wide eyes. "The white fang are probably in the city. They'll be looking for us." I said sadly. "I guess that's...ok." She looked down. "Hey, we'll meet up again sooner or later. Just try to find a place to stay for the time being, ok?" I reassured her. She nodded. Then I looked around and grabbed a black ribbon and tied it in a knot and put it on her head, concealing her ears. "So your harder to identify". She moved her ears a bit, moving the bow as well. "Alright." Was all she said. We then said our last goodbyes and parted ways.

I walked the streets, looking for work, or anything of the sort. Then I heard yelling come from the alley to my side. I went down the path and turned a corner, were I found two brutish like men against one little girl in red. One was holding her with her arms locked behind her back, and the other was looking through what seemed to be a change purse. Without hesitation, I ran up to the one with the purse and choke slammed him into the ground, making him wheeze for breath. The other one took notice and let the one in red go. But then said red turned and spun kicked him in the face, and took on a ninja pose, while making the noises with them. They both got up and ran, leaving me with the one in red.

"Hello, nice neighbourhood we're in huh? I said in a joking manner. She then laughed as well. "Haha, yeah! Real nice people." She answered. "So, what are you doing in a place like this?" I waved my hand around to the scenery." She hung her head. "Me and my sister were both getting groceries, but I got lost." At the mention of groceries, my stomach rumbled. Food. Fresh, well made food. She took notice of this, and tilted her head. "You hungry or something?" I nodded. "Don't you have a place to stay at?" I shook my head. "Want to stay at my place?" This caught me off guard. " your offering a place to stay to a stranger?" I said with a questioning tone. "Why not? You helped me, so why don't I return the favour?" I thought about it, then agreed. "Sure, names Joseph Honō. And you are?" I held out my hand. She grabbed and shook it "Ruby Rose.


	6. Chapter 6- So it begins

"Joseph! Are you almost done?!"

I spashed water into my face and then grabbed a towel. "Almost done!" I yelled back as I rubbed the towel on my face. I put on my shirt and looked into the mirror. "Definitely cleaner looking than six months ago." And that was true, since I looked kinda like a bum back then, but now my shave is clean, and air is trimmed. "Getting out now." I called to the door. As I opened it, a small figure was running at it. I opened the door all the way, staying out of the charging figures way. It tripped into the bathroom and fell with a loud "bleh". "Ruby." I rubbed the back of my neck. "I was about done." She got up and looked at me, pouting. "If you didn't take so long, I wouldn't need to do that!" She rubbed her nose. "Dinner is about ready." She said holding her nose. "Alright. Thanks."

As I walked down the hall, a barking was coming closer and closer. A small black and white dog turned the corner at the end of the hallway and leapt at me. "Gah!" Was all I could manage as it made me lose my balance and fall. "Zwei..." I whined. "Get off.." He did the opposite, and started to lick my face. "Eeehhhh. Help me." I cried a weakly. Footsteps came from the direction Zwei came from. "Oh for the love of all that's good." Someone said as they stood above me. The person picked up Zwei and gave me a laughed. "Yang...your dog is evil." I moaned. She made a shocked reaction. "Zwei!? Evel?! Never! He's the most innocent thing in the world!" Yang said as she hugged the dog. I got up, brushing the dust and dog hair off me. "Yeah, innocent" I said as I made are quotes. She stuck her tongue out at me. "By the way, you can't have dinner yet." I sulked "whyyy?"

"Because you and ruby are going shopping."

"But your the one who shops!"

"And I'm cooking tonight since my dads out late at work."

"But-"

"No buts!"

"They all say that at first..."

She then punched me in the arm. Hard. "Hey! Watch it!" I said as I rubbed where she punched me. "I'm the one who makes the jokes around here." She said with a smirk. "Now, get going." She said with a flick of her hand.

"So, what we getting?" I asked ruby as we walked into the shop. "Just some dust to refill our power." She said as she skipped. She then made a dash for a rack of magazines. "But first, I'm gonna check out the latest issue of my weapons magazine." She said as she started to skim through the pages.

"Gun freak"

"Fist freak"

I made a face at her, then started to browse myself. Nothing really caught my interest. Then the door opened. I turned to see who came in. "Aw crap...I forgot." Torchwick and some of juniors lackeys came through the door, and headed for the cash register. I ducked behind the shelf I was at and made my way forward. "Wait for the right moment..." I thought as I watched it unfold. Torchwick ordered the men to load the dust, and leaned on the desk, having a smoke. One of the goons spotted ruby out back. "Almost time..." I thought to myself. I waited a few more moments, and I heard a crash. "Bingo." I said as I looked up. The other goons were looking out the now broken window at ruby, who unfurled her scythe and spun it around before planting it in the cement. "Show off." I said as I walked up behind them. They all turned to me and raised their weapons. I smirked at this. "Okay, we're showing off our weapons? My turn. I slammed my fists together and black metal started to go up my arms from my palm, covering them in scale armour. The had runes printed on each scale, and were the colour black with gold trimming. They had pointed fingers for slashes, and had reinforced metal on the knuckles for punches. "Boys, meet law-" raise my left hand. "And order." I raised my right hand. "With these, I'm judge, jury, and executioner. And I sentence you all-" And said as I rolled my wrists. "A minute of a brutal ass whooping." Then I heard a whizzing come from my right. In instinct, I raised my right hand, hand was met with a explosion, making me fall to the ground. "That's real cute, but I'm missing my trial today." Said torchwick as he made a run for it. I went to chase him, but one of his goons raised his gun and shot at me. I raised my hand, and summoned a red symbol in the air, with a shield in the middle of it. "I forgot to mention, I'm a glyph user." I pointed two fingers at him, and then pointed down. Another symbol appeared, this one being green. Suddenly, the goons was pulled to the ground by a force and could t get up. "Stay there till the cops get here, ok?" I said to him as I walked outside. I found that ruby had just finished the last of them. "So, how's you do?" I asked her. "Good. You?" She asked back. "Same. I really want to beat torchwick right now." As I cracked my knuckles. "Were is he?" She asked. I pointed at a ladder leading to a roof. "There." I said.

As torchwick climbed up onto the roof, ruby launched herself up with her scythes bolt action rifles kickback, and I summoned a glyph that I used to jump up onto the roof. "Hey!" Ruby shouted at the running convict. He stops. "Persistent." Is all he says before a bullhead comes up from the other side of the building, blinding us with a spot light. Torchwick got onto the ship and turned to us. "End of the line, you brats!" He yelled as threw a red dust crystal at us. It landed at our feet. Ruby looked at it confused. I knew what was to happen. "Hit the floor!" Was all I yelled as I tackled Ruby. Torchwick shot his explosive at us, but it was stopped by a purple glyph. He yelled in victory, but then stopped when he saw that it didn't work. Standing in front of us was a women in black leggings with a womanly-like tux-looking thing in top. She had a cape that was purple in the inside and black on the outside. She was blonde, wore glasses, and had her hair in a bun. She pushed up her glasses and made a disapproving humph. She then swung her...caddle prod? And three bolts of purples energy shot toward the ship, making it tilt. Roman stumbled around and went into the cockpit. The women with us then swiped her crop down, making a small storm apear above the ship, and ice spikes started to rain from it and impale the ship. Moments later a shadowed figure of a women stepped out, who was wearing a red dress, crystal high heels, and had glowing eyes like fire, with runes up and down her arms glowing the same way. She made some movements with her hands, and the ground underneath the one with the crop started to glow. She noticed this and moved out of the way, just as a collum of fire erupted from the spot, sending debris flying. She then whirled her crop around and the debries formed into a javelin. It then shot at the ship and rammed into it, were the one in the dress shot fireballs at it and it broke into three smaller ones. She then sent a pulse of flame that incinerated the javelins. At the point me and Ruby got out of our shock and tried to help. Her scythe compacted into a rifle form, and started firing at the lady. I summoned a glyph infront of me with eight circles around the inside of the edges, were I started punching them and firing bolts of energy similar to the blond lady, but they were more direct and were a swirl of black and white. The lady on the ship blocked rubys shots with her hands effortlessly, while she swiped at my shots, sending them off into different directions. She then threw her hand up and a row of those pre-pillars of fire showed up at our feet. We were then sent flying by a force and the pillars formed where we were. I looked up and the ship was flying away. "Your a huntress." I heard Ruby day off to my left. The supposed huntress gave a scowl at Ruby. "Can I have your autograph?!" She yelled.

As we sat in what seemed to be a interogation room at s metal table, we were be scolded by the older blonde lady. I wasn't really paying attention. I was just drumming my fingers on the table and listening to the beat with my head down. A loud thwack made me raise my attention. When I looked up, I saw that the lady had smacked her caddle prod on the table and made Ruby jump back. "Heh. That things nothing." I thought to myself. "...but, there is someone who would like to meet you two. Just then, a man walked into the room. He had silver hair, a black suit-robe combo on with green trimming, a cane, and was holding a plate of cookies and a cup of coffee. "Ruby rose." He started. "You...have silver eyes." He said as he leaned in to look at Rubys face. "Uh..um-" Was all Ruby could say before the man interrupted her. "So, were did you learn to do this?" He asked while the lady held a tablet showing Rubys fight with the men outside. "Si...signal academy?" She said nervously. "You were tought to wield one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" He asked her. "Well, one teacher in particular." She answered. He nodded he's head, then settled the plate of cookies on the table, were Ruby started to dig into them. "There is only one other person that I know that can wield a scythe with that amount of skill, a dusty old Qrow." He said while looking away in thought. Ruby went to say something, but was muffled from the mouth full of cookies. "Sorry, that's my uncle Qrow. He's a teacher at signal. I was complete garbage till he brought me in. Now I'm all like-" she then made an assortment of ninja noises. "I see. And what is an adorable little girl like you going to a school designed to train warriors?" The man asked. "Well, I want to be a huntress." Ruby answered calmly. "You want to slay monster?" He then asked. "Yeah. I only got two more years of training left at signal, then I'm going to apply for beacon. You see, my sister is starting this year, and she wants to become a huntress, and I want to become a huntress because I want to help people. My parents always told us to help others, so I thought why not make a career out of it heh heh. The police are alright, but huntsman and huntresses are so much more romantic and exciting and cool just gaahh yeah know!?" She said, progressively becoming more excited. He then sipped his drink and nodded. Then he turned to me. "And you are...Joseph Honō. Hmm. You have a strong look on your eyes, like you've face immense fighting before." He said to me. "Yeah, I kind of fought for my life before." I said with a nervous laugh. The man then raised an eyebrow at me and sipped his drink. "So, who taught you how to fight like this?" He said as he showed me a video of myself fighting the men in the store. "I kinda...learned that on my own. Before I stayed with Rubys family at their house, I lived outside of the wall on my own for two years, so I tought myself how to fight with my fists." He nodded when I finished. "So what's your goal for the future?" He asked. "Well, I also want to be a hunter. I had a good couple run ins with Grimm, so I know how they work. I also like to defend others from dangers they can't handle, so I decided to be a hunter on that. I was planning on attending beacon, but I missed my chance to apply." I said glumly. This wasn't a total lie. I did have to fight Grimm every day, and I think the room I slept in was just manageable as the wild, since I found out that they can let loose a Grimm in my room when I sleep. The man sipped his drink. "Do you two know who I am? He asked "your professor ozpin." Said Ruby. "Your the headmaster of beacon." I finished. "You two want to apply to my school?" He asked. "More than anything." Ruby said. "A little less dramatic, but yeah, what she said." I answered. "Oh all right." He said.

"The airship is pretty high up." I thought to myself. "But not as high as my free fall stunt with Blake." I thought to myself as well. Blake. It's been six months since I've seen her. I know she also attends to beacon in the show but...there's some differences in this universe compared to the show. Like how Blake leaves the white fang. Maybe...something happened and she might not come? I clenched my fist. Naw that won't happen. I'm just over thinking it. But it's weird. I almost feel...protective of her. Like if anything happens to her, I'll feel responsible. I shook my head. Pull it together big man, your new life has just begun. Leave the problems for later. I turned away from the window, and found Ruby and Yang talking. I walked over to them. "Well, first day of our new lives as hunters and huntress sim training." I said with a laugh. "I know! I'm so pumped!" Yang said, making a pumping motion with her hand. "Yeah...fun." Ruby said glumly. "Ah cheer up Ruby, your gonna fit in well." I told her. "Besides, you got the yellow beast to guard you." I whispered to her. Yang must of heard me, because she slammed her fist into my gut. As I rolled on the floor, gasping for air, a news broadcast about the white fang turning violent showed up on holographic screens at the windows. "Well, seems they finally started." I thought to myself. Then, the lady from last night showed up on the screen, making an introduction to the people on board the ship. She said her name was Glynda Goodwitch. "Ah, that what her name was." I thought to myself. Then, Ruby rushed to the window in excitement, pressing her face up against the screen. "Look, you can see signal from up here." She said. I looked at the window, and saw a big building down below, which must have been signal. "See? Home isn't to far away." Yang said, rapping her arm around Rubys shoulder. Then, a blind boy ran by, looking like he was gonna puke. "Guess some people can't take the hight." I laughed. He then ran back, looking for a trash can no doubt. He then puked on the floor, getting some on his shoes.

"Aw man! Dude, not near me!"

"Aw ew gross! He got some on his shoes!"

"Gross gross gross gross"

"Hey man, step away from me, you smell like garbage!"

"Get away from me, get away from me, get away!"

Hello! Blaze here. I just want to say I didn't even suspect to get more than two favs, so thank you those who did. But anyway, I just wanted to ask this: do you guys want to see a BlakexOC thing go on here, or just continue without one, cause I got ideas for both ways. The voting will be due December 12

Comment if you want one wether or not. The first 15 comments will determine what I do. Until next time, goodbye.


	7. Update

Hey guys, Blaze here. So here's the thing. Personal things are kinda gonna have to make me move things on now, so if anybody was still gonna vote, it's done. I decided that I'm going to go through with the BlakexOC thing (since I kinda had it setted up, even though I didn't mean to). Now, I won't jump right into it, I'll give it time to progress. Also, chapters will come from 2-3 days of each other. Maybe 1 if I'm lucky. 4 if stuff is happening. It will follow the storyline of RWBY to some extent, but I might make changes here and there (already did for blakes way of leaving the white fang). And if any of you are wondering, yes Joseph's weapons will be explained on how he got them in the next chapter. So, until it's posted, goodbye, and goodnight (day, I don't know where you people live.)


	8. Chapter 7- The First day

We stepped off the airship and met an astonishing view.

I whistled when I saw the school. "Damn, this is a school?" I said in amazement. Ruby and Yang both were in awe to, with their mouthes hanging open. I then heard the sound of puking behind me. I turned and saw the same guy from the ship that was puking horribly. "Damn, I kinda feel sorry for him." I said as I walked towards the school with Ruby and yang. "So, what do we do-" I was cut short by the sound of Ruby squealing with glee. She then started ranting on about others weapons, which was no surprise to me. "Come on Ruby, there just weapons." Yang said to calm her down. This did not do that. "Just weapons?! There an extension of ourselves, a apart of us! There so cool." She said with excitement. "What about crescent rose? Aren't you happy with your own weapon?" Yang asked Ruby. Ruby then unfurled crescent rose and started to hug it. "Of course I'm happy with crescent rose. Weapons are like people, but better..." She then moped. "Not really. I mean, it's nice and all that you like weapons, but you're gonna have to start meeting new people." I told Ruby. "But why would I need to meet new people when I have you two?" She asked, looking at me and yang. "Well, speaking of people..." Yang started. "MyfriendsareheresoIgottogobyerubyandjoseph!" She yelled while moving away with, what seemed to be her friends, leaving Ruby spinning in confusion and me trying to stop Ruby from falling. I didn't succeed. She landed on a cart with briefcases stacked on it, toppling them over. I picked one of them up, seeing a snowflake symbol on it. "Is this...oh no-" I was cut off by a angery scream. "What are you two doing!?" A voiced yelled from behind me. I turned and saw a girl dressed in all white stomping towards us. "Shit." Was all I had to say to sum up the situation. "Sorry!" Ruby cried out, trying to get up. "Sorry?! Do you have any idea how much damage you could have caused?!" She yelled angrily. She then turned to me. "Give me that!" She yelled at me, taking the briefcase from my hands and opening it. "This his here is dust! DUST! do you know what damage you could have caused?!" She yelled, her attention aimed at me. "Hey there, time out. What do you me-" she then cutted me off again, waving a vial of dust in my face. "Fire, water, earth, energy! Is any of this ringing a bell?! What do you have to say for yourself?!" She yelled, releasing some dust into the air around my face. At that point, I thought she needed a lesson taught to her. I blew the dust back at her, making it explode on her, making the vial in her hand roll away. When the dust cleared, she was covered in soot. "ARE YOU INSANE?! What did you do!?" She yelled furiously. "I was showing you the dangers of waving dust around, ice queen." I answered back calmly. "Heiress actually." I voice said from behind me, making me freeze still. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee dust company, one of the largest exporters of dust." I turned and when I did, the face met a expression of surprise equal to mine. Which is to say, really surprised. "Blake?"

We stood there for a good couple of seconds, trying to see if the other person was real. We were both about to say something, then Weiss broke the moment. "Finally, some recognition." She said smuggly. Blake was about to say something else, but I put up my finger to stop her. "Yes, and they are also known to be unfair, if not, just cruel to faunes employees, and have some...questionable business partners." I answered back, almost a smug as wiess. This sent her stuttering, and made Ruby go into a fit of giggles. She then life's her face, all royal like, and marched off. "Sorry, I'll make it up to you!" Ruby called to her as she walked away.

Then it was just me, Ruby, and Blake. "So..." I started, turning to Blake. "What have you been doing the past couple of months." I asked her. "After we splited up, i found that the library was offering a job with a room for rent. So I got the job as a employee at the library, with my money paying for my rent there and the second floor." She told me. "Huh, after we splited up, I found Ruby here getting mugged in an alleyway, were I came in a...persuaded them to stop. As a reward, she let me stay at her house with her sister and dad." I said back. "Oh crap, I almost forgot. Blake, Ruby. Ruby, Blake." I said to both of them, introduceing them to each other. They said hi to each other and shook hands. "Wait...split up? Joseph..." Ruby said turning to me. "Yeah?" I answered her. "Did you two break up or something?" She said bluntly. This made Blake and me start to blush, and made stumble with my words. "Wait...what...no...we were-" Ruby then cutted me off again. "Because i can't see why you did, since she's really pretty looking." She went on. This made me and Blake go into a deeper shade of red, and me to stumbled words even more until I found them. "What I meant was that she and I were traveling together, then we parted ways when we got to vale. There was no, and I repeat, NO relation like that between us." I explained to Ruby. She then turned to a shade of red. "O-oh. Sorry, I shouldn't make assumptions like that, should I?" She said, laughing nervously. I then pinched the bridge of my nose. "Alright then, let's find out where to go." I said to both of them. They nodded and then we walked off towards the school. "Besides, it would never work out between us...would it?" I thought to myself. My thoughts were then interrupted by another voice. "Hey, you guys know where we're supposed to go?" He asked us. I turned and saw it was the guy from the ship. "Join the party."

"I'm just saying, motion sickness is a much more common problem them people let on." Said the blonde guy. "Ok, ok, I believe you, I believe you." I said to him, holding my hands up in surrender. "Well the names Jaune ark. Nice, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Lady's love it." He said, boasting a little. "No they don't." I said back laughing a little. Blake then hit me on the arm, glared at me, and then started to talk to Ruby. "I-I mean, they might?" I answered again. Jaune didn't seem to notice my change in opinion was forced. "Yeah, I hope they do. My mom always said, just be yourself, and it'll work out fine." He said, raising his head a bit. I nodded to show I bet him. "So, what's your weapon?" I asked him. He then he slowly drew out a sword from his holster on his side. "I..got the sword?" He said, holding a double edged blade out. He then grabbed he's holster and it unfolded into a shield. "And this shield." He said, holding out his shield with his other hand. "Alright" I said with a nod. "So what's yours?" He asked me. I smiled, then slammed my fists together. Then my gauntles unfolded from the palm of my hand. This made Jaune look at them with awe. "Wow. What do they do?" He asked. "Well, the finger tips are clawed for slashing, my knuckles are reinforced with strong metal for bone crushing hits, scale plating to be light in wight but just as strong as regular gauntles. and you see these runes?" I said him. "Yeah?" He answered. "These runes make it possible for me to control my semblance at a higher level." I said to him, showing him the inscriptions. He looked at them in amazement. "I didn't even know you could do that..." He said with awe. "What is your semblance by the way?" He asked me. "My semblance it glyphs." I said, summoning a small glyphs in my hand. "But so far, I can only manage jump glyphs, speed glyphs, gravity glyphs, and projectile glyphs." I said to him. "Oh. I...don't have a semblance. My aura isn't active." He said, letting his head hang. "Oh, um...wish I could help, but mine was activated by Rubys uncle." I said, rubbing the back of my head. I then tuned into Blake and Rubys conversation, and it was of a similar subject. I know I shouldn't ease drop, but when you are given hearing that can challenge a faunes, you can't help but use it. Ruby was going nuts about how blakes gamble shroud works and asking if she can look at it. Knowing Ruby, looking means dismantle and look at how it works through each peice of machinery. I motioned Blake a no signal, and I think she got the message, since when she talked to Ruby, Ruby looked a little crestfallen, but recovered quickly. "So...anybody know where we're going?" I asked. "I thought you guys knew." Jaune asked. I sighed and rubbed my face. "Crap."

We made It to the assembly before it started, but it was still packed when we got there. We saw yang waving us over, so we said goodbye to Jaune, much to his dislike, and headed over to yang. Hey guys! Who's your friend? She asked motioning to Blake. "Oh this is Blake. She an old friend of mine." I answered. "She and Joseph we're traveling together before he came to stay with us." Ruby pointed out. "Oh, well hi. My names yang." said yang, holding her hand out. "Hello." Said Blake, shaking her hand. Yang than leaned in and whispered something into blakes ear. When she pulled away, Blake had a tinge of red on his face. "Hey, what did you say?" I questioned Yang. "Oh nothing." Answered yang in a singsong voice. I whent to press on, but knew that yang would never give in easily. "So, how your first day?" She asked Ruby. "You mean when you ditched me?" She said back angrily. "Geez, rough day already?" She asked "yeah, and I exploded some sassy rich girl after she started shoving dust in my face." I commented. "Wait what?" Yang asked, turning to me with a look of surprise. "The dust leaked into the air around my face, so I blew it into her face and she exploded." I explained bluntly. What I didn't know, was that Weiss was leaning in, listening to what I was saying. "YOU!" She yelled in my ear. I then jumped and landed in blakes arms. "Holy shit! Wh-...oh." I was about to yell at Blake, until I realized my position. "Um...hi." I laughed nervously. "H-hello." She answered back with a stutter. "I...can get down now." I told her. "Okay." She said, dropping me. I landed and sprung up. We then bothed laughed nervously. Over blakes shoulder, I saw yang hold up a note saying "just kiss already." I quickly flashed my eyes red, and she dropped the note and put her hands up in surrender. I heard a tapping behind me, and turned to see Weiss standing there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot on the ground, with an eyebrow raised. "Are you done?" She asked obviously annoyed. "Yeah, yeah, I'm done." I said, making air quotes at done. This made her face contort into a sneer. "Don't give me that! You tried to kill me!"

"If I tried to kill you, then you'd already be dead."

"How dare you talk to me that way?! Do you know who I am?!"

"A generic spoiled rich girl?"

She then lunged at me, were I then made a reflective glyph to block her. She fell back, surprised at what I did. "What? Nothing more to say?" I asked her in a mock tone. "Listen, you don't like me, and I'm starting to hate you, so let's drop it before someone gets hurt." I told her. She got up and stuck a finger in my face. "You..YOU.." She sputtered. "You what? Listen, the longer this drags on the worse it's gonna get. I was in the wrong to explode you, but you could have exploded us BOTH when you were shaking that dust around." I told her. She went to say something else, then decided against it, and turned to fast the stage with clenched teeth.

"Attention students." We heard a voice on the over speakers. Everyone turned to the stage to see Ozpin standing at a microphone with Goodwitch at his side. "So she's like the secretary or something?" I thought to myself. "I'll keep this breef." He started. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and aquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction." At that last part, I saw people get funny looks, like they question that bit. "You assume knowledge will free you of this. But your time at this school will prove that knowledge will get you only so far. It is up to you, to take the first step." He then walked away from the microphone, where Goodwitch took his place. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tommorow, your initiations will begin. You are dismissed." At that, people started to walk away. "He seemed...off, didn't he?" I asked. "Seemed like he had other things in mind." Said Blake. "Almost like he wasn't there." Added yang.

Everyone settled into the ballroom, setting sleepingbags on the floor. Didn't set mine down yet, since a slight paranoia had me guessing that some people here will do shitty things to the people around them. I then saw Blake walking to a far wall and sat down against it, lighting a candle, which she then began to read a book. I decided to pay her a visit. "Hey Blake." I called to her as I walked over. "Oh, hey Joseph." She said liking up. I sat down next to her. "So, what book you reading today?" I asked. She rose an eyebrow at me. "You can read?" She said with a smirk. "Ha ha. I did used to read. A lot actually. But then the detainment thing, and you guys never gave me a single things to read..." I started. "Ok ok." She laughed. I smiled at this. She always so monotone. When she smiles or laughs, it really brightens me up. "The books about a man with two souls, both fighting over for the body." She explained. "Ah, so is it a inner struggle thing, it is it literally two souls In one body?" I asked. "Well, the message behind it is about inner struggles, but yeah, he actually has two souls." I nodded. "Alright then. Sounds like a good read. I might try it after." I looked up at the top of here head. "I see your still wearing that." I said, looking up at the bow concealing her faunes ears. "Yeah. I keep it now to protect my faunes identity from those who despise the faunes. I want to be seen for who I am, not what I am." She stated, looking down. "Yeah, I can relate to some extent, since me being a product for a insane testing program." I laughed. "Yeah, I guess we're both misfits." She then smiles. "you more than me, however." I poked her in the side, making her squirm. "Ha ha ha. Your a comedian." I said as I continued to poke her side. She squirmed uncomfortably, laughing as it happened. "Stop! I can't! I give, I give!" She laughed. I then sat back and laughed a triumphant laughter. She then punched me in the side, making me cringe. "Hey! I show you enjoyment, and you give me pain? Your cruel." I said to her. "That was torturous."

"But you liked it."

"I did not."

"You were smiling and laughing."

"That does not mean I liked it."

"Naw you loved it."

She then stuck her tongue out at me, and continued to read. "Hello!" Yelled a familiar voice in a singsong fashion. Blake groaned, putting her book down. "I'll never get to read..." She mumbled. I laughed at this. "Hey yang, hey Ruby." I said to the two. "Hey joseph, hey Blake." Ruby said back. "And what brings you two to this side of the ballroom?" I asked them. "We saw that you to seemed to be having fun, so we came over." Said Ruby. She then looked at Blake. "What book you reading?" She asked. "Well, it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body." She explained again. "Yeah, that's..real nice." Yang said trying to be polite. I laughed slightly at this. "I love books. Yang used to read to me all the time when we were little. All the stories about heros and monsters. They're what inspired me to become a huntress." Said ruby. "That's very ambitious for a child, but the world isn't like a fairytale." Answered Blake. "Well that why we're here. To make it better." Responded Ruby with a smile. "Aw I'm so proud of you!" Yeller yang as she grabbed Ruby into a hug. "Hey, cut it out!" She yelled as she swung a punch a yang. Then the two got into a small fight. "Yang, Ruby, it was a-" Blake started but was cut of by yelling. "What is going on here!? Do you know people are trying to sleep?" Yelled Weiss angrily. She then saw Ruby and yang, as they did see her. "Oh not you again!" Yelled both yang and Weiss.

"Shh, guys, she right, people are trying to sleep."

"Oh, now your on my side?"

"I was always on your side!"

"What your problem with my sister? She only trying to be nice."

"She and her friend are a danger to my health!"

With that, Blake grabbed the candle and blew out the lights.


	9. Chapter 8- Dreams, Past, and Pieces

I was chained to the floor.

The room was dark, except for a spotlight that was hanging over my head. I pulled on the chains, but they held. There was whispers coming from all around me in the surrounding dark. "Kill...hunt...destroy...massacre." They kept repeating. I tried to speak, but no noise came from my mouth. Then, all the voices stopped, but we're soon replaced by a deep, booming voice. "Why do you resist? Dont you want power? The path you are taking, will only lead to your death." The voice spoke. "Give into the beast that you have been resisting all this time, let it consume you." Then, four glowing eyes glowed in the black infront of me, red as mine can get, but more sinister. They bore into me as the voice spoke. "If you do, you can protect those close to you. That is what why you want power, am I correct? To protect those...insects." He said that with great distaste, like just the word left a horrible taste in his mouth. I strained to charge him, but the chains held steadfast. "Hmmm. These beings have no mortal connection to you other than physical form, yet you act like your one of them." The eyes came closer until a face appeared in the light. It looked like a dragon with the Grimm characteristics, bone masks with some patrusions spiking up along the top and back its head, a skin black as the night. When it spoke, it's lower jaw split into two, like pincers. "Then again, not purely Grimm either. Your something...different." It spoke, showing rows of jagged fangs in its mouth. Your not Grimm, and you are not one of remnant. Your not even one of this plane of dimensions, are you?" He asked, his face contorting into what resembled a smile. "Tell me, what are you, Joesph Honō, one of the so called, balance? He asked. Then it felt like a force was removed from my mouth. I could speak. "I'm the one that's gonna kick your ass if you do ANYTHING to my friends, you got that?" I spat at the creature. "Even the one called, Blake?" It asked. My vision went red, and I felt like I grew a little in size. "Leave her out of this!" I yelled, my voice sounding like it was multiple. The Grimm laughed. "Very well. I'll leave you time to decide. But know this: the light and dark within you cannot coexist." With that, the ground beneath me turned into a pool of black, and the chains pulled me down.

Woke up in cold sweat. My head was pounding, and the voice kept repeating in those words in my head: "the light and dark within you cannot coexist". What did it mean by that? I'm neither of those things I thought. I was just what was in between. Maybe I wasn't. Maybe soon, I'm going to be like that character in blakes book, having two souls fighting for control of the body. "Speaking of Blake." I thought. I looked down to the right, and saw Blake curled up, using the sleepingbag as a pillow. She looked so peaceful, cute even. Then what the thing said: "even the one named Blake?" Thinking about it made me worry. Is she a target by that...thing? Or something else? I shook the thought out of my head and looked around. Not far, maybe five feet away, yang was sprawled out, sleeping in about half of Her sleepingbag. Next to her, Ruby was cocooned in Her sleepingbag, with just her face visible. Couple of feet further, or at least as far as she could go, was Weiss, sleeping flat on her back like something out of a picture of something royal. I got up and silently moved to the balcony door, opened the doors, and went to lean on the rails. It seemed close to morning, but dark enough to be mistaken for night. Another thing that bothered me was what the beast basically started off saying: "give into the beast that you have been resisting all this time, Let it consume you." Never again. Never again will he go that far, to turn into that THING. Not again, not like what happened during that test.

1 YEAR AGO

"Test subject 001, you may come in." Like I had a choice, since I was chained and I was forced into the chamber by white fang soldiers. "Hello again 001, ready for today?" Asked Turons over the speaker. "No." I blaintly said. "Hm, well today, we got something special planned today." Five sections of the floor opened up, bringing up five cages, each with a deathstalker about the size of a van. "What, you gonna haves kill these?" I asked annoyed. "Not quite." Then, another section opened in the middle of the room, but immensely smaller than the five. In it, was a little girl, no older than 7, in clothing similar to mine, with the numbers 097 on her right shoulder. "You must also protect our newest subject, 097, better known as, Sam Hudson." Turons said. I couldn't believe this. All this time, KIDS were being subjected to these tests?! "Are you fucking insane?! And you call Grimm monsters!" I yelled out. There was no response. What made it worse, I was too far from her. The Grimm surrounded her, and I was outside of there ring. Then, the signal went off, and all hell broke loose. The Grimm went immediately for the girl, who screamed in terror, and I rushed forward. One of them raised there stinger. I put everything into my dash. In struck down. I slammed into the thing and sent it flying, making the others rear back. I checked the girl, and that's when I started to lose it. She...was unrecoverable. I can't even describe it. I wouldn't of I could. It was too horrible. My vision became red, and a black pulse came from my body. There was one thing on my mind. "Kill. Kill them all. Leave nothing of them. Make. Them. suffer." I turned to the deathstalkers, who were hissing and snapping at me, but made no advance. They were...smaller, like they were the sizes of German Shepards. I focused on one, and saw that it had blood on its stinger. That's when I totally lost all sense but the sense to kill. I was on it fast than it could react, and i beated into it. It fought back. I went on. It was just wriggling. I kept at it. It stopped moving. I never letted up. Then, after of beating into its body, I took its mangled body by the tail and swung it at another one, sending it flying. Another charged. I stepped on its head and yanked on its tail, severing it from the body. I hissed in pain. I then took the tail and stabbed it through its body. Turned to the one I hit previously. I grabbed it by its pincers and pushed it away with my foot, severing the body from its arms. It squirmed in agony. I then grabbed its tail and dragged it to the remaining two. One ran away, while the other charged. I slammed my living flail on it, killing both on impact. One left. I turned to find it, and it was in a defensive stance on the other side of the room. In a heartbeat, I was on it. It tried everything it could to defend itself, but still failed. I kept my left hand on its left pincer, my left foot on its tail, and my right foot on its right pincer. With my other hand, I ripped off its bone mask, and it let a wail of pain. I then bashed it's now soft head into the ground till it could move no more. After I was done, I threw back my head let out a deep, resonating, hungry roar that was anything but human. "Hunt. Kill. Massacre. Slaughter." These kept repeating in my mind. I sensed life on the upper part of the room. A hidden one-way window. I immediately rushed it and started to bash against it, denting it with every bash. I can feel the panick coming from the room of ones in there, and it only made me more hungry. But then, I heard hissing, like air being let out of a tire. But I didn't care, I only wanted what was inside of the glass. One of my hands broke through, and felt something wriggle In my hand. I pulled it out, and was met by a middle aged bear faunes. His fear...I could litteraly feel it coming off him. My jaw unhinged and I went to bite, but then I started to feel dizzy. I dropped him and he scrambled away. I fell to my knees and collapsed. When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by white fang soldiers, all with there guns pointed at me.

"Should we shoot."

"We would be doing everyone a favour."

"This isn't even a human."

"Fucking Grimm mutant."

I heard them whispering these to each other. "Contain him, and bring him back to his room. That's all for today." I didn't resist. Cause on that day, I felt like I needed to be locked away, since that killer intention, wasn't to just Grimm, but to anything that moved.

PRESENT DAY

I can't let it out again. Ever. It will kill anything and anyone it sees. "Hey." I heard a voice call from behind me. I turned to find Blake walking up to me from the ballroom. "Oh, hey Blake. I see your awake." I said with a small laugh. "Well, my internal clock woke me up, since this is about time I had to start work. I looked at her funny. You started work in the library at this time?" I asked. "More for security purposes." She answered. "But more importantly, why are YOU awake?" She asked with an eyebrow raised. "Oh. Couldn't sleep." I answered. That was close to the truth. "Oh. Okay. Well, I'm going to go and get some more rest." She said while turning to leave. "Blake?" I called. "Yeah?" She replied. "I just want you to know, if anything happens, anything at all, remember that the me you see right now is the real me, ok?" I told her. She seemed confused at first, but then her eyes widened with realization. "Ok. I will." She answered. I yawned, and followed with the same intentions. I took my place on the wall and fell asleep.

I woke up and saw that the sun was up this time. I stretched and went to get up, but felt pressure on my lap. I looked down and my heart almost stopped. Blake was sleeping with her head on my lap. I stayed completely still, trying not to disturbe her. I noticed a note to my side. "Dear Joseph. It seems like you two need some more 'catching up' to do, so I'm going to let you two sleep. Your truly: yang." I crushed the note in my hand "yang, why do you do this to me?!" I yelled in my head. Blake shifted a bit. I sighed. She looks peaceful, like she's right out of a storybook. I smiled a bit. "Your the one who kept me from breaking." I mumbled. She yawned and began to stir. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. I heard her wake up, then she gasped. I could hear the sound of her slapping her hand against her mouth. I pretended to wake up. "Ugh. Hey, morning." I told her." She jumped. "Mor-morning." She stuttered. "What's wrong?" I said, putting on a confused face. "Nothing, nothing." She said with a blush on her face. "Let's get our equipment ready." She said, grabbing her stuff and going. "Alright." I said while getting up and leaving in the same direction.

When we got to the change room, we went to find our assigned lockers. I got to mine and found law and order in there compact for, which was two metal plates that fit snugglely in the palm of my hands, while being held on my hands by rings that go around my fingers. A lock and load mechanism in it makes it unfold when I bash my fist together, or any surface. I then put on my armour that I packed with me. It was scale plated chest armour and greaves, with the same colour coding as my gauntles. Black as the main colour, with the same gold trimming. I went to check on the others, and found Jaune trying to hit on Weiss, which I found funny as I watched. She then saw me and gave me a death stare, which then I put up my hands and walked away. I then made my way to the cliffs.

Everyone got to the cliffs later on. I looked over the edge and whistled. "So, we jumping?" I asked. "Something like that." Ozpin answered "everyone, please get onto the platforms." He announced. Everyone then went and stood on a platform. "This will test you on your ability has hunters and huntresses. This is not a sparing game. Make your way to the artifacts and fight the dangers along the way to the best of your ability, because if you don't, you will surely die. These will also decide your teams for the rest of your time staying here. The first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the rest of your four years here. With your chosen partner, you will go and find the artifacts in the old ruins in the forest." Somewhere to my left, I heard Ruby cry out in dispair. "Any questions?" He asked. Jaune raised his hand. "Good. Let's begin." Suddenly, student were started to be flung towards the forest in front of them. I crouched and slowed my heartbeat. The word went quiet. "Alright, focus a glyph at your feet, wait to be launched, and jump at the right moment. I created a glyph at my feet. I waited. Waited. I felt movement underneath me. The world seemed to slow down. As the spring was halfway through throwing me, I jumped. I rocketed not forward, but more of an up angle. I saw the landscape spread for miles around me. When i felt that I stopped going up, I summoned glyphs to bounce on. I did this for a good bit, trying to decide where to go. "Where to land, where to land." I repeated in my head. I saw a suitable location somewere a good mile forward. "Alright. Here we go." I jumped as high as I could and made a glyph pointed towards my destination. Like a slingshot, I was flung towards the location. I summoned glyphs along the way to slow my decent, and landed with a role. I then immediately went to a full sprint. I stopped when I heard voices up ahead. I made my way up, moving silently as I did so. I stopped behind a tree, and listened. "-a nice guy. He helps around the house, and in return, we gave him a place to stay."

"That's nice of you guys to take care of him. I was afraid he'd do something stupid if he were to live on the streets."

"What do yo mean?"

"I saying that he's...dangerous when cornered."

"Is this because of things that happened when you two traveled?"

"You can say that."

I reconized the voices as yang and blakes. And from what I hear, there talking about me. I followed, trying toe no noise what so ever. They were silent for a bit, but then yang was the first to speak.

"So what's the deal between you two?"

"Excuse me?"

"Come on, you can hide it from me. I see how you look at him."

"I don't know what your talking about."

"Blake, you can't lie to me. I know you like him. And I'm sure he likes you too, since how he acts around you."

My face was going red. "I'm that obvious? And she...likes me?" I thought.

"We're just friends yang. Nothing more."

"We're just friends yang, nothing more."

"Ok what ever you say."

There's was a rustling farther away in the direction they were walking. I moved ahead to see what it was. I got around to the other side, and found a pair of Beowolves lurking in the bushes, facing yang and Blake. I stood up behind the two and whistled. They immediately turned to me, and my gauntles were unfurled. "Hey, ya stupid mutts. Looking for something?" I asked with a smirk. They roared and lunged, and I lunged as well, catching them both in the throats with my hands. We flung out of the bush, and into the opening. They scrambled away a couple of feet, and turned to face me, and I turned to face them. They circled me as I did to them. Then, one of them made a lung at me,and I punched my fist up, catching it in the jaw. I summoned a gravity glyph under it, and smashed it back to the ground, pinning it there. "I'll deal with you in a second." I walked towards the next one, who was about to howl. I quickly its muzzle, silencing it. "Oh no you DONT." I said, punching into the side of its neck. I heard a crack, and it went limp. I moved to the next one and snapped its neck as well. "Clean kills." I thought. I don't know why, but I felt like I should be a hunter and cleanly kill my targets. "Well I can't tell if your careful or brutal." I heard someone say. I turned to see yang and Blake both looking at me. "Yeah, well I don't want to make a lot of unnecessary noise. Grimm might hear." I said. Yes. So Grimm can't hear. "Well, I'd say you were pretty quite." Said yang. "I guess you guys are partners?" I asked. "Yeah, we met up not to long ago." Answered Blake. "Mind if I tag along then?" I asked them. "Sure, why not?" Yang said with a shrug. They carried on moving in the direction they were already moving, and I fell back to Blake. I whispered in her ear "dangerous when cornered? Really?" I said with a small laugh. She looked at me with wide eyes. "How long?" She mouthed. I shrugged, and kept walking. I heard her groan from behind me, and I laughed.

We got to a clearing. In the centre was the ruins of an old structure. At the structure were pedestles with chess pieces on top of them, with something of them missing. I examined them. "Different colours. Hm." I thought to myself. What were the colours for again? eh. I'll figure it out. Yang went over to one of them and picked up one of the pieces, it being a yellow knight piece. "How about a cute little pony!" She called to Blake. "Sure." She called over. I walked around, examining the area. Then I noticed something. When I walked over the center on the ruins, it made a...hallow sound. I kneeled down and nicked my fist against it. It sounded like there was an empty space in it. "Hey Joseph, what are you doing?" Called Blake. "Give me a second." I stood up, and stomped onto the hallow area, and it caved in. I took the broken priced it and found a coloured stone orb, painted black and gold. "What's that?" Asked Blake as she walked over. "Not sure. Maybe part of the artifacts?" I asked. She went to say something, but her attention was caught by something in the sky. I looked up, and my stomach dropped. "Uh...yang?" There was feminin scream in the distance. "It's sounds like a girl is in trouble!" Yelled yang worried.

"Yang..."

"We need to go help her!"

"Yang."

"Don't just stand there, let's-"

"Yang!"

"What?!"

I pointed up, and she looked up to see what I saw, and her eyes went wide with fear. Ruby was plummeting down from the sky, yelling. "Heads up!" She yelled down. Suddenly, she was sent flying to the side by another flying person, were they both landed in a tree.

"Was that your sister?"

"Uhh.."

A crash came from the forest, and a ursa came crashing out, swinging violently. It then dropped dead, and a red headed girl rolled off its back. "Yeehaw!" She yelled as it fell. "Aw, it's broken. Eeeeeeww" she said as she examined it. Then, another person clad in green climbed off it as well, panting. "Nora...never do that...again." He said between breathes. He then noticed that she was gone. The one called Nora was at the ruins, and picked up a rook piece, while singing im queen on the castle. The one she was with called her over. "Coming ren!" She yelled back while skipping.

"Did she just ride in on a ursa?"

"I-"

There was an all to familiar screech coming from the forest again. A girl dressed like some type of Spartan was being chased by a deathstalker. I felt my blood boil. "Deathstalker..." I growled under my breath. Ruby than jumped down from the tree and ran to yang.

"Ruby!"

"Yang!"

They were about to hug, but the one called Nora got between them.

"Nora!"

The deathstalker got closer. I couldn't take it. I charged it, readying my fist. I jumped over the Spartan much to her surprise, and plowed my fist into its face, stopping it in its tracks. I wanted to go nuts. I wanted to go all out. But I couldn't let it out. So I did the next best thing: I charged with a yell and started swinging.


	10. Sorry!

Hi, blaze here. I'm just here to say that sorry. I would have posted already, but it won't let me transfer my chapter over to the publisher. So hang on until then, and expect 2, or maybe three chapters at once. Again, sorry. Until next time, goodbye.


	11. Chapter 9- Battle and Teamformation

It was probably an insane thing to see what I was doing.

I was punching and blocking the deathstalkers attacks, but with little to no effect. "This is getting NOWHERE!" I cried in frustration in my head. Even with the physical strength I already have alone, along with the boosts from my aura, I made little progress in damaging the beast. "It can not be killed my normal means." I thought. And I couldn't use IT. Not with people around. So I made the first logical decision I made in the last hour. I retreated to the group.

When I returned, they all looked at me like I was insane. "What in the name of dust are you doing, trying something like that?!" Yang yelled at me while getting in my face. I didn't try to make an excuse. There was none, simple as that. "A plan that failed, that's what happened." I calmy explained to her. I turned to see Blake giving me a death stare that sent shivers down my back. She came up to me and pointed in my face. "Then next time try to think things through before doing something." She said through clenched teeth. "I can't stop instinct." I told her. She narrowed her eyes at me. "Instinct? What are you-" then her eyes widened in realization. I turned to the others. "Everyone got there pieces?" I asked them all. They nodded to my question. "Than there's no point in wasting time then." I told them. "He's right, our mission was to collect these pieces, and now we got them." There was a screech from above. I looked up to see a giant black bird circling overhead. "When did a nevermore get here?" I asked to no one in particular. "When you did your little suicide mission, that's when." I voice replied coldly. I looked to see Weiss with both hands folded, staring at me with cold eyes. I sighed. "Still don't forgive me, huh?" I asked. "No, I do not." She stated. "But...I guess that I was also...in the wrong. So if we're to survive this, we're going to have to work together." She put out her hand. "So until this is over, let's cooperate, ok?" She asked. I smiled and shook her hand. "Alright. It be akward trying to coordinate with the fear of being stabbed by you." I laughed. "Yay! We're making up!" Cheered Ruby, hugging us both.

"Save it for later Ruby."

"Let go of me, you dolt!"

Ruby then let go and coughed nervously. "Ok then...Let's get going!" She yelled, motioning us to follow her. We all then made our way back to the cliff.

As we go to the cliff, we were met by another set of old ruins. As we got into the clearing, the nevermore flew overhead, so we took cover behind a fallen pillar. It landed on the main structure of the ruins, blocking us from our destination. "Great. Just perfect." I mumbled. The nevermore is the one local Grimm that I wasn't pitted against. Dealing with this, might be trouble. "What's the plan?" Called yang. Ruby was about to say something, but then a crashing came from behind us. The deathstalker came barging out of the forest, hissing in rage. "Oh man, run!" Yelled Jaune. We all ran towards the ruins main building, but the the nevermore launched into the air. It did a hard flap with its wings, and launched feathers like spears at us. We took cover by another set of pillars. "Nora, distract it!" Yelled Jaune. "On it!" She yelled with glee. She jumped into the opening, dodging the oncoming feathers. She then pull of her weapon off her back, which unfolded into a grenade launcher. She then started launching grenades at the nevermore, exploding it in pink smoke. It didn't do visible damage, but it caused it to fly away.

"Get to the building!" I yelled. Ruby, yang, Weiss, Jaune, and Nora made it across before the nevermore came back and destroyed the bridge. "Well shit." I said in annoyance. I can make the jump, but the others couldnt. The deathstalker came charging from behind, hissing loudly. It bashed into the one dressed like a spartan, who blocked with a shield. She was launched back, only stopped by hitting into Blake, who was sent flying over the edge. "Blake!" I yelled. I summoned a glyph under her, sending her back up. She then turned gamble into a pistol whip and threw it like a grappling hook towards the building. She swung and landed on the other side. We looked each other and nodded. I turned to the deathstalker. I cracked my knuckles. "Now it's personal." I charged and ducked under a swing from its claw, and sent a uppercut to its head, making its raise. There was an explosion behind me, and an insane laughter. I turned and saw Nora flying at my direction with a hammer. "SSSSMASH!" She yelled, bringing her her down on the grimms head, forcing it back down. I roared in anger and did a pincer attack with its pincers. I caught them, but just barely. Its strength was stronger than any other deathstalker I faced so far. "Shit...your an older one, arnt ya?" I asked through clenched teeth. It hissed in reponse and brought its tail down. I summoned a glyph to catch it, but it was just barley doing its job. The stinger started to comethrough, inch by inch. I turned my head to Jaune and nodded. He seemed to get the message. "Pyrrha, nail it!" He told the Spartan. "So that's her name.." I thought to myself. Next thing I knew, a spear flew over my shoulder and stabbed itself into the grimms eye, making it rear back. I moved out of there, and went to Jaune. "You guys got this?" I asked. He looked at the deathstalker nervously, but then got his composure. "Yeah, we got this." He told me. "Alright. I'm gonna go help the girls with the over sized feather duster!" I told him as I ran and jumped over the gap. I ran up to Ruby. "What I miss?" I asked her. "Stuff." She replied. I laughed at this. "Alright, need help takeing it down?" I replied, watching it circle and dive. "Yeah, that be great!" She yelled as we rolled away from its tallons. "give me a second!" I told her as I climbed to the highest part of the ruins. I summoned a projectile glyph and forced it to me one big shot. "Come and get me!" I yelled as I punched the glyph, sending a massive bolt of energy at the Grimm. It hit in the head, but caused no damage, which I wasn't planning to do. It looked at me and screeched, flying towards me. I jumped up and landed on its head. It tried to shake me off, but I held on. "Your flying MY way now!" I yelled over the wind. I jurked its head to the side towards the cliff face. I turned towards that direction, and slammed into the cliff. I jumped off and summoned some gravity glyphs under it, holding it in place. "Alright! The stage is set!" I yelled to Ruby. She nodded. "Now!" She yelled to the other girls. Blake went to one pillar and threw her pistol whip to the other, while yang went to that pillar and caught it, planting it into the pillar, creating a slingshot. Weiss then summoned a black glyph on the center of it, and Ruby jumped onto it being held in place like a projectile.

"Think you can make the shot?"

"Hmph. Can I?"

...

"Can yo-"

"Of course I can!"

Ruby then focused on the nevermore, and loaded her weapon. The glyph turned red, and she launched at the nevermore. She cought the Grimm by its neck with her scythe, and landed on the was. Weiss then summoned a runway of glyphs up the cliff face. Ruby ran up the side of the cliff, dragging the bird up with her, gaining speed each second. When she got to the top, she shot her weapon, and decapitated the Grimm. She landed on the edge of the cliff, with the head landing next to her. "That's how it's done!" I yelled up.

We got to the assembly hall, and the teams were announced. A group of people who struck me immediately as a bunch of ass's, their names being Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark, making the team CRDL, with Cardin as the leader. Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and the other one I found out to be named Ren made up team JNPR. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang made up team RWBY. I teased Ruby about this when she came down from the stage. "Ruby, leader of RWBY? Big thing to have your team named after you." I laughed. "Shut up. We were given the names that made the name up." She pouted. "Joseph Honō." Ozpin called. I went up onto the stage. "You did not pick up one of the chess pieces, but something else. You found the random player piece." He told me. A screen above the stage showed pictures of the three teams, and me in the middle, in a triangle formation. "You get to be an add-on to one of these teams. The name will no change, but you will be a member of the team. Who do you decide?" I looked at the teams. CRDL is a nope. JNPR, eh, if I knew them better, maybe. The last one was team RWBY. "I pick team RWBY." I told ozpin. "Very well." He tapped his scroll and my picture went with team RWBYs. "Congratulations, and welcome to beacon." He told me. I came down from the stage and the team walked up to me. "It seems you can't get enough of us." Said yang with a smirk. "My apologies, I guess I should go with team JNPR." I said, turning around. "Alright, alright, sorry. Welcome to the team." She said, raising her hands in defeat. I turned to Blake. "Seems that were gonna be stuck with each other again." I said with a smirk. She rolled her eyes. "When were we ever?" I laughed. "So." I turned to Ruby. "What the plan boss?" I said with a smirk. "Find our dorm, and sleep. I'm Tired." She said drowsily. When she said that, I realized how tired I was. We all agreed that this was the best course of action, and went to find out room to sleep. We got there, and to no ones surprise, there was only four beds. "I call that corner." I said half awake. I fell halfway there and passed out.


	12. Chapter 10- Unlikely ally and Moving in

I was free falling towards God knows what.

There was no light above me, but I could see myself clearly. I saw the ground coming up. It was pure white with no stain, bump, or crack. That was, until I landed. The ground beneath me cracked outwards like a spider web. I got up, and looked around. "Great. I'm back." I thought to myself. "You are indeed correct." Said a voice from all directions in the void. The ground splited in front of me, and outcame a beast of monstrous size. I snake like being flew out of it, with bat like wings. It had clawed lizard legs on the front and back of its body, so it's middle part slinked and coiled when it moved. It resembled what i Chinese dragon would look like if it were Grimm. The only thing I reconized on it was its face, the same face from last night. "The path has been set, and there is no going back." It said to me in its deep, booming voice. "Your fate, and the fates of those around you, have been sealed." It smiled. "And there will be most...interesting events to come." I glared at him angered. "Why does it seem like you know what's going to happen?" I questioned it. It laughed. "I don't, but neither do you." It moved closer. "Treating me like an enemy is a mistake. I am closer to an ally than that." It hissed. "Really? How are you more than a ally than an enemy?" I asked annoyed. It smiled. "I might as well be your ally, since you and I are one and the same." It said. I stepped forward. "What's that's supposed to mean?!" I yelled angrily. "I am the blood that runs through your vains, the beast within. I am your Grimm soul." It said, a black aura glowing around it. I moved back. "You...your the voice in my head?! The one with the temptations?!" I yelled both in anger and fear. It laughed. "More of a manifestation of it. My form is what yourubd can comprehend me as. And I do enjoy this form. It's very...sinister." It said with a low laugh. "So what, you gonna take over my body or something and kill everything, is that it? Huh?!" I asked, raising my voice. "Hmm. No I won't do that. Believe it or not, I only lend you my strength. The temptations are your own fault." It told me. "Ha. Yeah, like I would want to attack every living thing around me." I said sarcastically. "It's the same as going insane. You can't tell right from wrong, so everything morphs into a target. I can't say about friends, since you never went that far around them." It explained. I sighed and sat on the ground. "So I got to talk to you every night?" I asked. It laughed and shook its head. "No, my tolerance level is just as high as yours, so my visits are going to be a couple a week. I only talk to you as a another source of guidence." I then asked a question. "Didn't you say that there is also a light within me? Is there something else like you here, but of the light?" It hissed in distast. "He and I do not get along, since we are polar opposites. We tend to keep our distance." It explained. "My time is up. Goodbye, Joseph Honō, for now. Until next time." It flew up. "Wait, what do I call you?!" I asked. It stopped and faced down. "Call me Atlas!" It said, divebombing into the ground, crashing through. I fell into the hole, and was blinded by the dark.

I woke up with a start, stiff from sleeping on the floor. "Ugh." I complained, stretching myself out. I looked at the clock on the wall. It was 6:30. "I got time." I thought to myself. I got my uniform clothes and brought them to the bathroom. I got into the shower, and changed when I was done. I threw my dirty clothes in the laundry shoot, and walked out the door. When I walked out, Blake was just getting up. "I see your internal clock is still active." I whispered. She turned to me with half closed eyes, and just mumbled. I silently laughed and walked over and bent down next to her bed. "Are you even awake?" I whispered. She started to get up. "Or are you just not a morning person?" I whispered, standing up. She got up, and took one step before falling on top of me. "Ack!" I yelled as quietly as possible. We fell, and I took the brunt of the fall. I groaned, and looked down at Blake. She's asleep. My face went red. "Um...Blake?" I whispered. All I got was the light breathing of her sleeping. I tried to get up, but she then held me tighter, letting out a small whimper. I swallowed hard. This was bad. If I try getting up and waking her, I'll feel like crap. I tried to get up a couple more times, but had the same outcome. "Crap...I can't get up." I said I'm defeat in my head. In the end, I accepted my use as a bed and just layed there.

"...six bottles of beer on the wall. Take one down, pass it around, now there's five bottles of beer on the wall." I sang in my head, waiting for morning. Then, I felt Blake start to stir. She groaned and started to get up, but she seemed to feel that something was different. She looked up, and saw me instead of the dashboard of her bed. "You sleepwalk, you know that?" I told her. Her eyes went wide and she jumped up with a yelp. Her face was flushed, and she started to stutter. "Wha-what are you d-doing?!" She half yelled, careful not to wake the others. "Me? Blake, YOUR the one who fell and slept on ME." I told her. "What? I fell on you?" She asked, confused. "You apperently sleep walk, since you took one step and fell on me, without even opening your eyes basically." I told her. "Then why didn't you try getting up and waking me?" She asked. "I did. Multiple times. But you kept holding tighter and let out these little whimpers, so it seemed real cruel to wake you." I said rubbing the back of my head, looking down. When I looked up, Blake was looking down, blushing. "Blake?" I asked her. "N-nothing. I'm going to go get ready." She said, walking past into the bathroom. I sighed. "Crap." I mummble to myself. I went to the window and looked out. The sun was half up the horizon. I climbed onto the window sill and sat on it, just looking out at the surrounding area. The court yard separated the wing with the classrooms from the wing with the dorms. I saw airships coming in, dropping off the older students that had the privilege and money to live in apartments or houses in town. There was a storm in the distance, but other than that, the day was peaceful. I heard a loud yawn from behind me. I turned to find a mass of disheveled blonde hair rise from one of the beds. "Hey yang." I called to her. She turned to me, and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"Hey joseph. Already thinking about suicide?" She laughed tiredly. "Nah. If I were, I'd want to go out fighting." I told her. She laughed. "So your gonna pick an unbeatable fight to kill you?" She asked. "No, more like if I'm going to die, I'm taking you with me kind of thing."

"How noble."

"So noble."

"So noble that you'd be Blakes bed last night?"

I almost fell out the window there. "Wha...how did...when?" I asked, my face heating up. She winked. "I'm not a sleeper. I go to bed late, and wake up early, cause it gives me more time to things I want to do." I groaned. "How long this gonna be over my head?" I asked. She thought for a moment. "Until you two kiss." My face went redder. "WHAT?!" I yelled, just loud enough to keep Ruby and Weiss from waking up. "Oh come on Joseph, a blind man can tell that you have something for her, and her for you." She told me. I looked down. Does she? No, she couldn't. Why would she anyways? No one has, so why would she? "It's not like that. We're just friends." I told her, getting off with window sill. "Then why not be more than that?" She asked. "Because yang, why would we? I don't want to risk breaking the ONE friend I had that kept me from destroying myself!" I yelled in annoyance. "Wait, what do you mean by destroying myself?" She asked, her eyes narrowing to slits. I realized what I said, and backed off. "Nothing. I meant nothing." I said, turning back to the window. "Joseph, from how long I known you, I learned that you don't say anything without meaning something. And you said something. So tell me, what did you mean by what you said?" She asked me with worry. I sighed, still facing away from her. "You know how for two years that I was traveling with Blake?" I asked. "Mhm." She answered. "Those two years...were a dark time for me. Everyday was a struggle. And I was always on the brink of giving up. But she...she kept me going, to push through each challenge and survive. If I never met her...I'd be gone a long time ago." I said close to a whisper. I leaned on the window sill. "She was my reason to fight, to survive. If i lose her...I won't be like I am now." I said, white knuckleing the sill. "So just keeping her as a friend is good enough to me, since I don't want her getting hurt." I walked to the door, keeping my head down and avoiding yangs eyes. "I'm going for a walk." I told her. I went out the door before she could say otherwise. As soon as I closed the door, I sped down the hallway. I ran until I was in the wing with the classrooms. I found a closet to go in. Then I started to let tears loose. I just let them fall from my face, with no sniffling or hiccuping. These weren't tears of sadness or anything like that, but tears of anger. Anger for everything I lost and for those years at that facility. Mixed with that, tears of happiness, for the ones I met that I can call friends.I did this for a couple of minutes, before cleaning myself up and heading back. On the way there, I heard obnoxious laughing and the cries of someone in pain. I headed towards the sound, and found a scene that made my blood boil. Cardin and his team were picking on some faunes kid. The guy was about average hight, like a 5'11. He had light brown hair that was kinda long, green eyes, tanned skin, and a pair of dog looking ears. They were pushing him around, pulling at his animal ears, and tripping him. "Hey, assholes!" I yelled to them. They turned to me. "What did you just?" Cardin said with a sneer. "Oh I'm sorry. Did your brain not grow from birth, so you have trouble with intellectual matters? Let me say it again. What...the fuck...are you doing, you poor excuses for beings of intelligence." I talked slowly to them. They completely turned to me. "Oh, you don't know what you just did." Said Cardin with a sneer, cracking his knuckles. "Oh I do know. I'm about to educate you." I said, hopping on the balls of my feet. "Whose first?" I asked. Cardin motioned his hand to me and his goons charged. I sighed. "Put the small fries up, huh?" I mumbled. I walked foreword, putting my hands in my pockets. One went for a running punch. I crouched and spun on my foot, swiping his legs out to trip him. I then brought up my heel and dropped it on his gut, knocking the windout of him. The next two came at the same time. "Two on one? You must be going easy on me." I said with a smirk. One made a punch at me, so I caught his fist, and spun his arm behind his back. I then kicked him into his teammate, knocking them both to the ground. I summoned a gravity glyph under them, pinning them ontop of each other. I turned to Cardin, who kept the same face but took a step back. "Unless you want to be sent to an early grave, I suggest you fuck off." I then dashed towards him, getting into his face and making him fall on his rear. "Unless, you got the stones to fight?" I asked kneeling down. He went to say something, but dicided against it. "Smart." I growled. He got up and walked away. I released the other two and they scrambled after him. The last one got up and hobbled towards them, shooting me a dirty look. I flashed my eyes red, and he hobbled fast while growing a tail. I turned to the faunes boy and put my hand out. "Come on, take it. I won't hurt you." I told him. He grabbed my hand and I pulled him up, making him almost fall again. "Th-thanks." He told me in a low tone of voice. "Don't mention it." I told him. "Names Joseph. You?" I asked him. "Garris." He told me. "Well Garris, I'd say that your good for now." I told him while looking around, looking for more people like Cardin. "I wish all third years were like you. They tend to not care about people picking on others." He said looking down. I then bursts out laughing. "W-wait, you think that I'm...oh god that's funny." I laughed. "Im a first year dude." I finally said. His eyes went wide with surprise. "But the way you fought without a weapon was almost like the level of a third years! You must have had a lot of unarmed training to fight like that." He said in amazement. "Yeah. Training." I said rubbing the back of my head. "I wish I could fight up close like that. My thing is that I'm a trapper hunter. I don't like getting up close." He said kicking the ground. "I'm all about getting up close and personal. Fistfighter hunter, I'd guess you'd call it." I said cracking my knuckles. "I'd guess that explain it." He said. Then something caught his nose, since I noticed his nostrils moving like he was sniffing. "Well, see you around Garris." I said turning to walk away. "Wait!" He called. "What is it?" I turned and asked raising a brow. "Are you a faunes too?" He asked. "Um, no. Why?" I asked. "You...it's nothing. See ya." He said walking away. I shrugged and headed back to the room.

When I got back, all but Weiss was awake in the room, dressed in uniform. "Hey Joseph! Where'd you go?" Asked ruby in a whisper yell. "For a walk." I told her. I looked at yang, who looked back with eyes that seemed sad. When I looked at blake, she off to the side, avoiding me most likely. I didn't blame her, since of how she woke up. "Why are we whispering? Shouldn't we wake her up?" I asked ruby. "We will. Just in a couple of more minutes." Said ruby with a grin. I didn't like the grin. "Ruby...what are you doing?" I asked with a questioning tone. Ruby pulled out a red whistle. "Oh nothing." She said moving up to weiss. The clock turned to 8:00, and the alarm went off. Weiss put her hand out and turned it off. She got up and yawned, while ruby leaned in and blew her whistle, making Weiss fall out of her bed. "Gooooodmorning team RWBY!" Yelled Ruby yelled out. "What in the world is wrong with you?!" Yelled Weiss. "Everything." I told her from across the room. Ruby turned and stuck her tongue out at me. "Team RWBY is now in action, so we got to be ready." Said Ruby with her hands at her sides, putting her chin up. "Alright boss, what's the first order of business?" I asked. "Decorating!" Yelled Yang. "Say what?" I asked. "We need to organize our stuff." Said Blake holding up a suit case, which then opened and spilled out the contents. "And clean." She added. I snickered at this and she shot me a dirty look. "We are NOT doing that." Answered Weiss. "Let's vote on it. All in favour of decorating, raise your hand." She said raising her hand. Yang and blake rose there hands while Weiss crossed her arms. They turned to me. "I abstain. My vote wouldnt do much good anyways." I answered. Then we got to work.

While they were putting there belongings around, I had non to begin with besides some clothes, so I worked on where I would sleep. I went to the wall and examined it. "Seems stable enough." I mumbled to myself. I looked up and saw that we had rafters that seemed stable. I tested this by running up the wall a couple feet and jumping on one. I hoped on it and it held. "This seems alright." I said while jumping down." I grabbed some extra sheets and the sleeping bag i used before. I went back up and made myself a makeshift bed on the rafter, with the blankets tied to make a criss cross patterned net to hold me up while I sleep. Happy with this, I jumped down to see what the others were doing. I saw that they had moved there stuff in, with only one problem. "Guys, why is there a pile of beds in the middle?" I asked. "There's no room for them." Answered ruby. "Right. well, while you guys are doing that, I'm going to head to class. See ya." I said opening the door. "Class? This early?" Asked ruby. "Early? Guys, it starts in fifteen minutes." I said pointing at the clock. They turned and all started to panick. It was 8:45, and class started a 9:00. "So see you guys there." I told them as I closed the door. I don't think they heard me, since they started to run around in panick. "Ah, what a way to begin a semester." I said walking down the hall to class.


	13. Chapter 11- Class is in session

I walked through the door and the class was half full.

"Seems the early birds are here." I thought to myself. The class was doted with students, all either reading notes or sleeping. I looked at the board and saw diagrams of different types of Grimm in eagle spread position. I took a seat in the front row and layed back in my chair, waiting for class to start.

I must have dozed off or something, because the next thing I knew, the bell rang and the room was filled. I yawned. "Where are they?" I thought to myself as I looked around the class. Just then, my team came running through the doorway, just as the teacher came in. He was older man, with a very round gut. His hair was grey and well kept, with a burly mustache that covered his mouth. His eyes seemed to be shut as well, so I couldn't tell who he was really looking at.

The team sat on either side of me, and took out there papers. Ruby sat on my right side, with Weiss further down. On my left sat blake, with yang a seat down as well. "What took you guys do long?" I asked with a smirk. Ruby glared at me. "I don't know, the fact that you didn't help us made us late!" She said in a whisper yell. "Wouldnt it be better to do that AFTER school?" I asked. She went to say something, but then mumbled to herself with a defeated look on her face. "I'm a terrible leader..." She mumbled, slumping onto the desk. I patted her back. "Your not bad, your inexperienced. You'll get the hang of it." She looked up and gave a small smile. "Since when did you give out motivational speeches?" I leaned back and crossed my arms, yawning. "About twelve seconds ago." The teacher then began to talk to the class. "Hello students. I am professor Port, and I'll be teaching your Grimm studies." He said in a booming voice. That was all i really payed my attention too before I started to think on some things. Atlas for example. More of an ally than a foe he said. That right off the bat that tell me that he can't have my full trust. He's the blood of multiple Grimm mashed into one that was injected into my body, so it's only natural that it would try to be more...savage like Grimm. "Still...I wonder I can control him. Make him a controlled weapon more than a ticking time bomb." I thought to myself. Then there's the temptations. Even now, they're speaking, like background noise to everything else. Listen hard enough, and it can be heard. He says that they're my fault. And I agree with him on that, to an extent. I want to use it for protecting others, but then there's the risk of going berserk. When that happens, I'm scared what I will do. So until I can control him, or his power, atlas is in the grey area for me. Then there's the other one. My soul, or light counterpart if you must. I never met him. Atlas says that they don't like to be near each other, so they tend to keep there distance from each other. "So I can only talk to one at a time." I thought to myself. Can I even talk to it? If I could, that means everybody can talk to there's, which I would have been asked about already, like "has your soul talked to you yet?" Sort of thing. Do for safety reasons, I'm keeping him in the grey as well, since I learned that the light can be evil as well.

As these went through my minds, I didn't realized that I had sketched Atlas on my paper In front of me. When I focused on my sketch, I almost fell backwards. "A, student. Woken up, have we?" Asked proffesor Port. I straightened myself out. "No sir." I responded. "Okay then. Would you like to demonstrate a lesson then?" He asked. "Um...what do you have in mind?" I asked. "Why, a battle with a Grimm, of course!" He boomed in a jolly tone. "Uh, ok. Yeah." I responded. "Excellent. Please go get your equipment on."

I came back in my combat attire, and my weapons ready. I saw that my team was cheering as I walked in, except for one.

"Yeah Joseph!"

"Kick its butt!"

"Fight well!"

"..."

I did a small wave and rubbed the back of my head with a nervous laugh. "You guys don't really need to do that." I thought to myself. I turned to proffesor Port. "So, what am I up against sir?" I asked. "Why, this of course." He said, motioning to a cage with something blocked by shadows inside, shaking the cage violently. "When did-" I said before being cut off by port smashing the lock on the cage. "Let's begin!" He yelled, swinging a combination of a blunderbuss and a axe.

When the lock fell off, a boarbatusk charged out, snorting and squealing in rage. I got ready to fight, but it seemed less interested in me, and started to turn to the class. "Shit! It's not interested in me!" I thought in panick. I grabbed the nearest chair and threw it at the boar. It didn't hurt it much, but it got its attention. It Squealed in anger and got ready to charge. "Yeah, come and get it, you undercooked pork chop!" I taunted, readying to charge as well. I summoned a movement glyph under me, all force going forwards. It spun, and spin dashed at me, while I shot at it as well, hands forward to catch it. We collided and stopped dead, sparks flying from its bony plating grinding against the palms of my gauntlets. The boat then kicked the ground underneath it as its legs passed under it, sending it upwards and me staggering back. I fell on my back, and it landed spinning, shooting strait at me. "Aw, fuck me." Was all that went through my mind as got closer. I grabbed the ground underneath me and sticked my feet out, ready to stop it. "This is so stupid." I mumbled. It slammed into my feet, forcing me to bend my legs. I was in a similar situation as I started out in, except I was on my back and holding the Grimm back with my feet. "Get..." I bent my knees more. "Off!" I kicked it back, sending it back three meters. In kept spinning and rushed back. When it got close, I swung my leg to the side, making it spin past me and into a wall. It slammed into the wall, cracking it, and rolled onto its side. I got up an faced it, panting. "You...you..." It started to get up, but I ran at it. "Piece of shit!" I booted its gut, earning a pained squeal from it. I grabbed one of its tusks and threw it across the room. It landed and slid across the floor, thrashing in rage. I walked towards it, rolling my shoulders. It got up and faced me, letting out a snort before charging. I ran at it as well, catching it by its tusks. It became a pushing contest, beast against a not-so-human human. I raised it up, just enough to get its front legs off the ground, and slammed my fist into its lower jaw, dazing it. Using this time, I planted my foot on its face and pushed on it while pulling on its other tusk. I broke it off, and the boar just jutted in pain with a squeal. I planted the tusk in its head, from the bottom to the top, killing it instantly. I let go and fell with a thud, which echoed in the classroom. I turned to the proffesor. "So...was that good?" I asked. "Why yes! A little suicidle, but brilliant! You got a bright future as a hunter ahead of you." He told me with a laugh. I have a weak smile. "Thanks." The bell rang, and we were dismissed.

I was walking to my next class, but then I heard the sound of two familiar voices arguing. "Aw geez." I mumbled, moving in the direction of the voices. When I turned a corner, I found Weiss yelling at Ruby. "-In the forest you only acted like a child, and you continue to do so!" She yelled. "Hey, woah woah. Time out." I said walking over to them, making a T symbol with my hands. Weiss glared at me. "This is a private matter." She said through clenched teeth. "No, it's not. This is a matter about the team, and I'm apart of the team." I told her, getting in between her and Ruby. "Ugh. Rubys too childish to be leading the team! She naive, slow, and just nusiance. I studied AND trained, so I deserve better." She said turning her back to me. "So your saying your more deserving of the role of leader than Ruby?" I asked crossings arms. She turned to me. "That's exactly right! I'm-"

"On what grounds?"

"Excu-"

"What makes you qualified for the position as leader?"

"You...I worked, trained, and studied to get here! And she-"

"She got in here with skill, yes. But do you think ozpin wouldn't have done a background check on her to see if she truly qualified?"

"That's-"

"I known Ruby for a good six months, and let me tell you this. She worked her ass off to get where she is today, both physically and academically. So the last thing she needs is someone to tell her that her entry is a mistake."

"But she still-"

"Fifteen, yes. She also just came from a environment where I'm sure there's a bunch more that act like her, so don't expect her to change so suddenly. We all got to do things we don't like. And this is a perfect example. Be compatible, or the entire team goes down."

Weiss opened her mouth, but closed it and stormed off. I turned to Ruby. "A bit much?" I asked. She looked down. "She's right isn't she? I'm not really suited to leading a team." I sighed and sat down against the wall. "Non of us are born leaders, Ruby. We are born to decide what we do and how we do it. Life has given you the role of leader. It's not an easy role, but I got faith that you'll do good." I smiled. "Well, you seem to hold the peace, to some extant." I turned to see Ozpin behind Ruby, taking a sip from his mug. Ruby jumped at his voice. I got up. "Hello sir." I said to him. "Hello Joseph. Mind if I talk to Ruby?" He asked. I shrugged. "Go ahead." I waved to Ruby and walked off towards the locker room to change out of my gear.

I dropped my gear off at my locker and headed back to the room. When I got in, I found that they did compromise with the beds, by stacking them on top of each other to make bunk beds. One was balancer on top of the other by some books and some rope, while the other was hanging above the other from the ceiling, with a little tarp over it. Coming from that bed was a little light, and some scribbling could be heard coming from it. I walked over to the bed and lifted the tarp, only to find Ruby writing away on several notes. "That's a lot of notes." I said, making Ruby jump. "Joseph! Don't do that." She groaned at me. "Ok, ok. Sorry. Just don't overdue yourself alright? Get some sleep." I told her. "I know. It's just...I want to know as much as I can so I can be a good leader." She said with a sigh. "Well, like I said. Don't overdue yourself. Get some rest. It's only the first day, and your studying like your cramming for a test tomorrow." I told her, while rubbing the back of my head. "Ok, I won't overdue it. Just a couple more notes." She said, continuing to write. "Well, alright. I'm gonna go get ready for bed." I said, grabbing my sleeping clothes and walking over to the bathroom. "Alright. Night." She said not taking her eyes off the paper.

When I got out of the bathroom, I found that Ruby had fallen asleep. I smiled and shook my head. "Well she's asleep." I thought to myself. I climbed up to my bed and layed down. As I got comfy, the door opened. I looked down to find yang and blake coming in. "Good evening ladies. How's your day been?" I asked from above. They spun around before looking up and sighing. "Eh, it was alright." Said yang with a shrug. "It was fine." Said blake blandly. Yang went to the bathroom, and yang went and sat on her bed, grabbing a book in the process. I hooked my legs on the rafting and hung upside down. "So, can you please tell me when Weiss became so much a crtitic to Ruby?" I asked blake. "Since this morning." She told me without taking her eyes off the book. "Really? Cause I had to step in and try to resolve the fight." I said with a sigh. She looked up a bit with a smirk. "How'd that go?" She asked. "Weiss stormed off, and that's about it. But as you can see..." I climbed up and moved to above rubys bed, and lifted up the tarp. "It kinda got to her." I sighed again. "Don't worry. It'll blow over soon." She told me as she went back to her book. I moved back to my bed and layed down. We sat there in silence for a couple of minutes before I broke it. "So, when we gonna tell them?" I asked her. I didn't see, but I think I heard her catch her breath. "What do you mean?" She asked. "I'm talking about you being a faunes and me being a freaking mutant. When we gonna tell them, since it's gonna be worse when they find out themselves." I said as I turned to her. She layed her book down and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I dont know. I'm nervous to tell them, since they might ridicule me." I groaned. "Yes, but your a natural thing on this planet. I'm some lab rat that's half man and half Grimm. Not something you can turn your head to." She laughed. "Yeah, you got it bad." I smiled. "No sh-" I was cut off my the sound of the bathroom door opening. Me and blake went back to what we were origanally doing. "Aw, don't let me real your moment. You can continue." She teased while she dried her hair with a towel. "Ha ha. Night." Was my only response. "Yeah. goodnight." Responded blake as well. "Aw. You two are no fun." Pouted yang as she went to bed. Soon after, I drifted off to sleep, bracing for another dream.


	14. Chapter 12- Secrets given and Vengeance

It was an ugly fight to begin with.

"The battles one-sided, that's for sure." I mumbled. Pyrrah looked at me with sadness, but then turned back to the battle. Cardin was just bashing Jaune around the arena with a mace, basically toying with him. At one point they lock weapons, and Cardin leans in to say something to Jaune. I focused my hearing onto them, and made out "this is the part were you lose." by Cardin. My mouth contorted into a sneer when I heard this. "Cheeky little-" my thought was interrupted by a flash of blue light from the battle. When it cleared, Cardin was on his rear while Jaune had his hands up in defense. Still in shock from what he did, Jaune didn't notice Cardin getting up and charging Jaune. "That's enough!" Yelled Goodwitch from the side. Cardin stopped his attack and hefted his mace, but gave Jaune a cocky grin. "When your aura goes into the red, that indicates you are in no shape to fight, and must switch out with a teammate." She said as she motioned her hand to a screen with both Jaune and cardins faces on it, with Jaune having a almost empty and red bar under his, and Cardin having a slightly emptied green bar under his. She then dismissed us, and we headed to lunch, but I took a bit of a detour.

I headed to the roof to think. I got to a spot which I deemed private, since nobody ever went here. It was a dip in the roof with two arches on either side and a ledge behind it, so a view from the top made to like like it just dropped off to the ground. I went down to my little spot and layed back and concentrated. "_I know you can hear me." _I spoke in my head. A deep laugh spoke back from the back of my head. "_Hello, pleasant day is it?" _Atlas told with satisfaction. "_You say that about everyday since you started talking to me out of my dreams."_ I answered back blankly.

"_Well, it's certainly a better view then your mind, that's for sure. Besides, it's, as you call it, funny when I talk to you in the middle of your classes." _

"_Yeah, real funny when you scare me half to death in the middle of class."_

It laughed it response. It's first time talking to me out of dream was in the middle of Ports class, making it seem like I just woke up from a nightmare.

"_But this is not why you called me, is it?"_ Asked Atlas in a more serious tone_. "It's not, I came to ask a question." _I said sitting up.

_"What chance does Jaune have as a hunter?" _I asked, rolling my wrist in my hand. "_Hm. Right now, none whatsoever. That fight between him and the brute showed that clear as day." _He answered in thought, which was weird, since he's in my thoughts. "_But, what i see, is that he hasn't had proper training. The big one, cardin was it? has reached his limit in natural strength, while the one named Jaune still has some potential as a warrior. He had no training with his aura, is that right?" _He asked. "_To my knowledge, no." _I answered. "_The fact that he can produce that much power without any training in a fight like that proves that he's just a warrior ready to be awakened. All he needs is training." _He answered. _"And who can train him? I'm not, since i might end up killing him." _I asked. Atlas went silent for a moment, but then answered. "_The one name Pyrrha is suitable to teach him. She is one of great skill, and seems to show affection to the boy."_

"_Ok. That seems reasonable enough."_

"_And another thing."_

_"What is it?"_

_"Someone is approaching!"_

This made me jump up in alert. _"Who?! Where?!" _I got no response from Atlas. "You scaled bastard." I mumbled. I could hear footsteps coming closer over the ridge. In panick, I ducked under the ridge to hide and compressed my aura to hide my presence, in case it was a teacher. I didn't need them banning me from the roof. The footsteps stopped above me for a second before someone jumped down. My eyes were closed, waiting for a scolding, but nothing happened. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see who I was looking at. Blake has her back to me and was holding a book labeled "ninjas of love", and was moving towards the spot I was sitting at before. I thought creeped into my head that made me smile. Slowly, I creeped towards her on all fours. She sat down and started to read. When I got right behind her, I raised up just enough to be level with her. Just as I was about to scare her, my eyes caught what she was reading. As I read on, my face went multiple shades of red, and making my mind have a fuse or two burst. "And your so calm while reading this?!" I thought. After a minute of this, I spoke up. "This is the type of read your into?" She jumped and she swung her book towards my head, knocking me to the ground. I groaned as I got up, rubbing the side of my head. "That hurt..." I mumbled. When I looked up, blake held the book close to her chest, with a that was shaded red, with wide eyes that had anger in them. "I hope it did." She said through clenched teeth. I laughed as I got up. "You know...it's always the quite ones who read smut." I joked. She blushed and turned away. "Shut up. It's a good book. The story behind it is captivating."

"I'm sure it is."

She turned to me with narrow eyes. "What are you doing up here anyways?" She asked accusingly. "I should be asking you that." I asked her back with a smirk. "I came up here to read." She told me as she held her book tighter. "I came here to...chat with someone. Or something." I told her as I kicked the ground softly. "SomeTHING? What are you talking to?" She asked. I sighed and sat down against the wall behind me. "You know how I got human-Grimm blood in me?" She nodded and sat on the ground against the wall in front of me. "It grew...sentient. At first, it's talk to me through my dreams, but now...it's capable of talking to me when I'm concious." She gave me a look like I'm crazy. "Yeah, I know I sound like I'm insane, but I'm being honest here. I come up here to chat with it, since it's quite up here." I said, air quoteing chat. She sighed in frustration. "So, what, there now two minds in there now?" She said as she pointed at my head. "Um, no. Well yeah. Think of it like my heads a car. I'm the driver, and he's the guy in the passenger seat that wakes up every once in a while and talks to you before falling back asleep." I explained. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ok, that makes...sense I guess."

"So yeah. The more you know." I said with a small laugh.

We sat there for minute in silence, before she broke it. "So, this place is our secret, alright." She told me. I smiled and placed my right hand above my heart and lifted my left hand. "I swear to not tell another soul about this place without your permission." I laughed. She smiled and started to read her book again, while I layed down and rested. "How much?" She asked.

"What do yo-"

"How much did you read?"

"Well, I read enough to see that the dude went down on the girl and-"

"How many pages!"

"About two pages."

She sighed. "This book is OFF LIMITS. Alright?" She told me as she pointed at her book. I laughed. "Not my kind of book anyways. well, not for the occasion at least." I said with a wink. She blushed and covered her face with the book. "Why do I got a feeling that hanging around yang has corrupted you in some ways?" She asked. I smiled again. "I've always been like this. Just never was to comfortable with doing so." I said with a laugh. She groaned and mumbled something. All I could make out was pervert. "I am not a pervert." I answered, making her jump. "You...you heard that?" She asked, face slightly red. "Well, all I got was pervert, but if I wanted too, I could make my hearing on par of a faunes's hearing." I told her. A look of relief swept across her face, but still kept the red tinge. "I'm gonna go get ready for next class." She said as she picked up her book and dusted herself off. "Yeah, same." I said, getting up as well. I went to the ridge and jumped up. I put out my hand to help her up, but she just raised her eyebrow at me. She took a couple steps back, then ran at the wall to the side, jumped at it, pushed off of it and landed next to me. I sighed. "I try to be a gentlemen, and you just shoot me down." She smirked and walked off towards her next class. I shook my head and followed suit. "I can't help but like you." I thought to myself.

After my class, I decided to take a stroll through the school park. The moon was out, so everything was pretty clear to see. I walked the path near the dorm buildings, and I heard some voices. I listened, and recognized them to be Pyrrhas and Jaunes voices, and it sounded like it was a heated conversation. I followed there voices to a nearby dorm building. "Coming from the roof." I thought to myself. I climbed up the side of the building by jumping and latching onto the ledges of the windows going up. When I got to the last window, I stopped going up and hid under the ridge to hear what they were talking about, and I almost fell off when I heard what Jaune said.

"I forged my documents so I could get into this school."

There was a silence in the air. "Holy shit." Was all I could think.

"I'm not a great warrior. I can't fight, and I can't even lead a team."

"Jaune-"

"Just leave me alone."

The air grew tense, and I wanted to go up there and slap Jaune upside the head. "Your making a huge mistake." I thought. I heard someone's footsteps walk off, and the sound of a door opening and closing. I sighed and got ready to go over, when I heard a third voice. "Well isn't this a surprise." My blood ran cold when I heard the voice. "Oh no." I mumbled. I peeked over the edge and saw Cardin towering over Jaune, who was recoiled in fear. "C-Cardin! You didn't hear-"

"Oh I did, Jauney boy. Forging documents is a big no no, isn't it?"

"P-please don't-"

"Oh I won't."

I didn't like we're this was going.

"You won't?"

"That's right. On one condition."

Cardin leaned down and was face to face with Jaune, showing off a evil grin. "You got to do what I tell you, when I tell you, or else Ozpin is gonna hear about this."

There was an eerie silence, then Jaune answered. "Ok. I will."

"Great! I say this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Said Cardin as he put Jaune in a headlock and dragged him out the door. I climbed over the edge, and I pulled out my scroll. My blood was boiling, and my vision grew red.

_"Atlas."_

I selected the camera application and had it so I could see my face.

"_How may I be of service_?" He asked, with a hint of glee.

"_Give me something to hide my face."_

_"What for?"_

_"Do Cardin doesn't know who did what." _

Atlas laughed, like he just got a wonderful gift. _"I got just the thing."_

As I watched my face on the screen, black smoke crept from the edge of my hairline, slowly covering the top portion of my face, from the top lip up. As it faded away, bleached white bone appeared were the smoke was, like a masquerade. It looked like frontal top portion of a human skull, with red markings symmetrical to either side on the mask, and eyes like charcoal that was just burned out. I felt it the mask, and sure enough, it was morphed into my face, replacing skin with bone. I grinned at the work. "Perfect." I said satisfaction. What came out wasn't just my voice, but the sound of multiple voices came out, like men, women, and children were speaking the same lines in a chorus.

I sat on a outcropping in the schools massive hallways upper part, out of site of those who pass under, humming to myself. Then I sensed him. I grinned as I got up and looked down. He was walking and talking with one of his cronies, saying this about the faunes, how there inferior to them. I gripped the stone and crawled on the ceiling, following them. After a bit, they parted ways and Cardin went down a hallway that was deserted. "Stupid little monkey. Making this easier." I thought to myself with giddy. I followed him, and he entered the courtyard. I quickly scales the side of the wall to the rooftops, and followed him like that, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He turned down a alleyway like area between two buildings, and grabbed a smoke from his pocket and lit it. I crawled down the side of the building next to him, slowly making my way down to him. When I got to the floor, I walked towards him silently and stopped a couple feet away. "You know, it's illegal to smoke on scho grounds." I hissed. Cardin spun around, and his eyes went from annoyed anger to shock and fear. "What the fu-" was all he uttered before I punched him in the face, knocking him out cold. "Be silent for now. We'll talk soon enough." I whispered as I kneeled down. I grabbed him and threw him over my shoulder. I scaled up the wall to take a view. "Now, where to?" I mumbled. My eyes landed on the massive tower above that rose in the center of beacon. "Bingo."

When I got up to the top, I felt Cardin start to stir. "Oh, the big mans waking up." I said to no one in particular. I tossed him into the center of the room, and he sprung up his eyes darted around before they landed on me. "How'd you sleep?" I asked with humour in my voice. He didn't seem to find it funny, as he fell on his backside and crawled away. "Oh don't be like that." I said as I walked towards him. "I just want to CHAT." I said, landing a stomp on his back at that the last word, earning a pained gasp from Cardin. "Oh come on, I thought you were tough. That shouldn't have hurted you." I said with a laugh. I then grabbed his head and forced him to look up at me. "Or maybe your actually a coward, and you just pick on those who you know you can beat just to make yourself seem stronger. He responded by spitting in my face. I froze for a couple of seconds, before my eyes blazed so red that it lit up cardins face, and a monstrous grin spreaded across my face. "Oh, now you done it."


	15. Chapter 13- Lockdown and confession

I was woken up by the sound of Ruby calling my name.

"Joseph. Wake up!" She called from below me.

I looked over the bed to see her still in her sleepwear. "Morning." I said with a yawn. "Yeah, morning. But look at this!" She handed up her scroll to me, which had a news article on it. I read it, and my stomach did a free fall.

_Student Attacking_

_Last night, between the times of 4-5 o'clock in the morning, first year Cardin Winchester, leader of team CDNL, was found brutally beaten and unconcious at the schools main gates. He has suffered a concussion, burns, bruising from kicks and punches, and several broken fingers, limbs, and ribs. He is known to be a known troublemaker at this school, so the attacker could have been one who has been assaulted by him in the past. Until the perpetrator or perpetrators are caught, the school will be on lockdown. So stay in your rooms, and follow protocol to keep order._

I handed the scroll back to Ruby, who turned it off. "I'm usually excited when schools basically canceled, but this...This is terrible. I know Cardin was a bad guy, but I don't think he deserved it THAT bad." She said looking down. "No way. I couldn't have gone THAT far, did i?" I thought to myself. Then again, I don't remember much of what happened last night.

"So Ruby. Where's everyone else?" I asked her. "Across the hall in team JNPRs room." She told me. "Alright. You coming?" I asked. "N-no. I'm just gonna stay in here." She studdered. I gave a confused look, but shrugged it off.

I walked across the hall and knocked on the door, and was met by a sleepy looking ren. "Hey man. Mind if I come in?" I asked. He shrugged and let me in. Everyone was sitting on one of two beds and talking. Not chatting. Talking, like they were discussing something. "Hey guys." I said with a wave as I walked over to them. They turned to me and said there hellos. I sat down on an empty spot next to yang and across from blake. "So, I take it this is about the attacker?" I asked as i motioned to the group. They nodded. "It just odd you know? No matter how bad you want to beat someone, there was always a challenge between two hunters, were the limits were set. This...this was just brutal." Said yang. "Maybe the attached didn't want to play fair?" I answered. She shook her head. "But still, it's almost something inhuman did this, like some type of monster. That's even a possibility by the characteristics of the attacker." I gave a confused look. "Characteristics? There wasn't anything like that in the article." I told her. "Well...when I heard the news, I kinda snuck out and went to the cafeteria to snag some goodies..." She laughed nervously. "Really?" I asked her unimpressed. "But that's besides the point. The point is that I overheard some teachers on patrol talking about the attacker, and one of them said that Cardin woke up shortly after he got to the infirmary, and went crazy. After they subdued him and asked what the attacker looked like, he said that its was the reaper." I then again gave her another confused look. "The reaper? What's that's?" I asked. Blake them spoke. "The reaper is a story character that is said to hunt the wicked at night and torture them until dawn." She told me. "So your saying is that the boogie man is hunting students?" I asked. "Well, no. But the description Cardin gave matches what the reaper is described as. A human with a Grimm mask, eyes like the internal fires of the planet, and speakes with the voices of its past victims." My body felt cold after hearing that. "So, it's a Grimm?" I asked. "Well, we're discussing if it's the actual thing or just some person who is impersonating it." I nodded in understanding. "Is that why Ruby won't come out of the dorm?" I asked. Yang nodded. "It was the thing our parents told her to make her behave, so she always had a secret fear of it reaper. Now a possible one is here and she's scared out of her wits." Yang sighed. Weiss the just groaned. "She's such a child, I swear." She said leaning on her arm. "You'd be scared too if your childhood nightmare just became a reality." Yang told Weiss. The two then started to argue. "I'm...gonna get some air." I told them. I didn't wait for them to answer as I walked out the door.

I snuck through the school to the little spot on the roof. When I got there, I sat just on the edge of the roof and rubbed my face.

_"Atlas"_

_"Hmm. You called?"_

_"What happened last night?"_

The sound of Atlas laughing rang through my head. _"Why, you taught Cardin a lesson. That is what you wanted, is it not?"_

_"What happened to him is not what I wanted!"_

_"I did tell you before that it is like slowly going insane when you turn. The mask is no exception."_

The last thing I remember from last night was being blinded by rage. _"To be fare, you did have a reasonable amount of control before he enraged you." _It was true, i remember haveing some sort of control of myself last night. But I felt my mind slowly getting disoriented, like I was in a dream. _"So, how can I control it?" _I asked. _"With use, of course. You cannot control it without first using it." _It told with a small laugh. I groaned and leaned back. _"That wasn't even the full extent of the power, was it?" _It laughed at this. _"Oh no, definitely not. That what I did just effected your way of thinking. I never lended you my strength, for the strength you control was in use." _It laughed. I groaned and held my face in my hands. _"I really am a monster." _I said with a small, sad laugh. "No your not." Said a voice behind me. I jumped and turned around. Blake was sitting on the ridge behind me holding a book. I sighed. "I said that out loud?" She nodded. "Your also predictable by coming here." She said as she jumped down and walked over to me. "Is that so?" I said with a small laugh. She sat down next to me. "Blake-" she cut me of by putting her hand up. "Before you say anything, I know that was you last night." She told me. My eye went wide with shock. "But...how-" she cut me of again. "Because a human Grimm seems something only you can pull of, and you didn't come back to the dorm until late at night. When you did...I sensed that it was you, but at the same time, it was not. You radiated a dark feeling, so I didn't say anything." She said, slowly turning into a whisper as she went on. "Oh." Was all I could manage to say. "But tell me, why did you do it? What reason was there to do that to Cardin?" She asked turning to me, sadness in her eyes. I turned away and closed my eyes. "Just do you know, it was never supposed to go that far. All I wanted was to scare him. Maybe rough him up slightly. But what happened, was not intentional. It...I lost control." I told her in a shaky voice. "But why do it in the first place?" She asked fully turning to me. I explained to her what I heard between Jaune and Pyrrha, and how Cardin used it as leverage on Jaune. Blake looked down, her face with anger on it. "That slimey little..." She shook her head. "But Jaune? I'd never thought he'd do something like that." She said with disbelief. We sat there a little longer. "The weekend." I said. "What?" Asked blake with confusion. I looked up. "I'm telling them about me on the weekend. And before you ask, yes I'm prepared to face ridicule." I said solemnly. She nodded. "Ok. I'll back you up on this, alright?" She told me. I smiled back at her. "Thanks." I got up. "I think we should get going. I got a feeling rubys gonna get the idea that the reaper got us." I joked. She laughed. "Why? Only troublemakers get visited by the reaper." I shrugged. "I don't know. Your a fugitive and I'm a mugger basically. That counts doesn't it?" She punched me in the shoulder. "Hey! Ok. Sorry." I said rubbing my arm. She rolled her eyes, and we went back to the dorm.

The next couple of days were real slow. Teachers patrolled the halls, and classes almost non-existing, since a lot of the teachers were on guard. Cardin was released from the infirmary, but didn't speak at all. He seemed paranoid, afraid of every shadow that passed by. When one of his friends tapped him on the shoulder, he responded by sending him flying. He didn't even bother the faunes, not saying anything to Jaune, just basically a different person. At one point, I convinced Jaune to ask Pyrrha for help in training, which she did gladly. "He's got potential to become immensely strong. And you seem like the person for the job." I told her. She thanked me, and went to training with Jaune. Soon after, the lockdown was lifted, since no signs of the attacker had shown up. "But remain on guard when alone, and if possible, have someone with you when you are outside the dorms." Announced ozpin on the speakers. Now there was a school rumour going around. One about a mad demon that haunts the halls at night, searching for a victim. I laughed when I heard it. "Only once though." I murmured.


	16. Chapter 14- Showdown and true feelings

It was the weekend, and the team decided to go and visit town.

Weiss was going on about the decorations being set up around vale. "It's simply breathtaking the care that is put into these decorations for the vale tournament!" Said in awe as we walked along. "So, why are we here again?" Asked Ruby. "We're here to see the town and the decorations that were set up." She told back. "She's just here to scope out the competition." Commented yang. "Quite you!" Called back Weiss. "Well, she's not denying it." I added. She gave be a dirty look, and continued walking.

We came across a dust shop that had broken windows and police tape all over it. "The hell happened?" I asked. "Seems to be another break in?" Answered yang sadly. Then I overheard some police officers haveing a conversation.

"Damn, another break in."

"They didn't even take any money. Just all the dust."

"Who would need all that dust?"

"You think the white fang?"

"I think I don't get paid enough."

Apparently, Weiss also heard there conversation, and replied with "ugh. Faunes scum."

This got both mine and Blakes attention right away. "Excuse me?" Asked blake, with a tint of anger in her voice. Weiss turned to her. "The faunes are nothing but thieves and liers." She said, raising her chin up. "Woah woah. Are you talking about ALL faunes in general?" I asked. She looked at me annoyed. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't i?" I took a step forward. "Pray that your joking." I told her. "Or what?" She said, also taking a step forward. I opened my mouth, but a yelling stopped what I was gonna say.

"Stop that faunes!" Yelled a man on a ship, pointing at a guy with scraggly blond hair, a white opened button T-shirt, shorts, and sandals that was running from a ship on the docks. What made him noticed as a faunes was the yellow monkey tail coming from just above his rear. "Get the stowaway!" Yelled some people, who looked like deck hands, as they chased the faunes. He then climbed up a light post and hung upside down by his tail. "I'm not just a stowaway, I'm a GOOD stowaway!" He yelled in triumph as he took out a banana and unpeeled it. One of the cops walked up to the flagpole. "Get down from there." He said up the pole to the faunes. The faunes then responded by dropping the banana peel on the cops face, and dropping down in a full sprint. He ran past us, and time seemed to slow down a bit. When he passed blake, he gave her a wink, making her go wide eye. When he passed me, he got a sneer and red eyes, making him go wide eyes, for a different reason. "After him! We need to examine him!" Yelled Weiss. We gave chase to him, then he scaled up the side of a building. "I got it." I said as I hoped up onto the side of the building. "Find out how he fights!" Yelled Weiss. "Don't worry. I will." I called down. When I got up to the roof, I found hip s coyole buildings down, jumping from roof to roof. I ran to the ledge in his direction and summoned a launcher glyph at the edge. When I ran and jumped off of it, I flew two buildings and repeated the process until I landed infront of him. He skidded to a stop, looked behind him, then looked back at me. "Geez, your fast." He told me. I smirked and stretched my arm. "Eh, not real hard to give chase when your me." He raised a eyebrow. "Ok. Why did you follow me?" He asked. "Have a couple questions to ask." I told him. He looked even more confused, but then he seemed to get an idea of why I was doing this. "This is about the tournament, right?" He asked. I nodded. "Alright, ask away."

"Your semblance?"

"Not telling."

"Mhm. Your weapon type?"

"Not telling."

"Alright. Your fighting style?"

"Still not gonna tell."

I nodded. "Ok. Seems about right." He smirked. "Is there more questions?" He asked. "One more." I answered with a shrug. He sighed. "Okay. What is it?" He asked with a slight boredom in his voice. "That girl in the black back there. You know, the one I was with?" I asked as i took a step towards him. He nodded. "The faunes back there? Yeah." I smirked. "Yeah. You, uh, winked at her?" At that point, he got I was talking about. "Oh. OH. I see what this is." He said with a smile. "What is it then?" I asked through narrow eyes and a smile. "Your scared that I'll take her." He said while pointing a finger at me. I laughed. "Not really. Just want to see your interests in her." I asked with the same expression. He shrugged. "dunno. She's good looking, for starters." He said non challantly while shrugging his shoulders. I laughed. "Okay then. Well, just so you know, I'm already here, and I got a thing so..." I said, shrugging my shoulders and raising my arms in a I guess manner. "So your basically telling me to back off?" He asked, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow. "Well, if you say it like that, it sounds like I'm a ass." I said with a smile, rubbing the back of my head. "But yeah, that's what I'm basically saying." I told him, gaining composure, and face going serious. "Wait, are you threatening me?" He asked. "Take it how you want it, I'm just saying, don't do it." I told him raising a hand. "Yeah, I'm gonna take it as a threat. And I'm not liking it." I smiled and rolled my shoulder. "Ok then. What you gonna do about it?" I asked. He then pulled out what looked like two red poles from behind his back and connected them, making them a staff, and spun it around before slamming it into the ground, cracking the roof. "Not bad." I said, before slamming my fists together and unfurling my gauntlets onto my arms. I opened my arms, exposing myself. "It's alright, you get first shot." I told him with a smirk. He gave me a dirty look, and spun the staff around his body before making a swing up with the end of the staff into my bottom jaw. A large thwack could be heard as my head was thrown back. I stood there for a couple seconds before looking back at him, a smirk plastered on my face. "Nice hit. My turn." I said as I crouched down. He got into a defensive stance, bringing his staff up infront of him. I summoned a launcher glyph under me, and flew into the air. When I look down , I saw that he had moved a couple feet from his original spot. "Heh. Made the shot easier." I thought to myself. I summoned a projectile glyph infront of me, and forced it into one big shot. When I stopped ascending, I punched the glyph, sending a blast just like the one I sent at the nevermore at the initiation, which is a larger, more violent version of my regular shots, flying at him. He started to spin his staff infront of him, and the blast slammed into him, causing a explosion of black and white. When I landed, his staff fell from the sky and impaled the ground next to me. I pulled it out and swung it around like a bat as I walked towards the impact zone. When I got there, the guy was on his back groaning, his clothes cinged. I leaned down next to him. "Now listen. I don't hate you, but I seriously like this girl, alright? Just don't need some dude walking in and ruining my chance." I placed the staff next to him. "Names Joseph. Joseph Honō. And you?" I asked as I put my hand out. He raised his head, then grabbed it. "Sun Wukong" he told me as I helped him up. "Alright. See you around." I said as I walked towards the edge of the building. "Hold on." He called from behind me. I turned to him. "Listen, if your still mad, I understand, but-" he cut me off. "What are you exactly?" He said as he collapsed his staff. "Your aura wasn't even up, and you took that hit like it was nothing." I shrugged. "Im just a regular human." I said as I stepped backwards off the side of the building. I landed and cracked the cement. When I looked up, sun was looking down at me wide eyed. I two fingered saluted him and walked away to find my team.

After a couple hours of searching, I found out that they were back at the dorms. When I walked through the door, I found blake and Weiss haveing a argument. "They are murderes and thieves!"

"Ok, so there really misguided."

"Admit it. The faunes are scum!"

"What right do you have to say that?!"

"I'm a victim!"

The room went quite, and Weiss turned to the window. "My family has been at war with the white fang for years. Like literal bloodshed. Family, friends, and coworkers go missing every day, and my father always came back home frustrated. This made my childhood very rough." She then turned back to blake. "So that's why I have no love for the white fang, and also why I don't trust the faunes in particular!"

"Well maybe we were done being pushed around!"

The room went silent as blake had a look of realization wash over her face. "Blake.." I said as I walked over to her. She shook her head and ran out the door, slamming it behind her. The room had a eerie silence to it. My body was shaking, and I turned to weiss. "You happy now? You got what you want!?" I said to her through clenched teeth, yelling the last part with eyes blazing red, and voice morphing into my other selves voice. I shook my head and they went went back to normal, eyes and voice. I didn't wait for her reaction before I ran out the door after blake.

I found her in the court yard, standing infront of a statue of hunters and huntress slaying a Grimm. "Blake!" I called as I made my way over. She turned to me, and I saw that her eyes were tinged red from tears. "Why? Why do they hate us all just because of a few of us are evil?" She said with anger as tears started to fall from her eyes. I noticed that she had her ribbon in her hand, exposing the cat ears that sat on top of her head. "Blake..." I said, reaching my hand up. I didn't know what to do. Blake was standing infront of me, crying, and I just stood there like an idiot. So I did what I thought was the most reasonable thing to do. I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, putting her face into my chest. She tensed at the sudden move. "Blake, if the whole world goes against you, know that no matter what, I'll stand by your side. You are not alone in this world. You are not evil. You..." I swallowed hard. "You were my reason to live, to fight all that time in that helI I was in. You kept me fighting. You kept me surviving." I held her a bit tighter. "So seeing you like this...it kills me. No matter what Weiss, or anybody else says, you are a very good person. Better than most humans." I said to her, laughing a bit at that last part. I looked down, and she stood still, not making a sound. She looked up, her eyes still teary, but she had a smile on her face. "Thank you...for telling me that." She said with a sniff. My eyes softened. "I'm the one who should be saying thank you." I said, smiling back. Her tears welled up again and she put her face into my chest. "You were the only person I...enjoyed being around, to talk to at the facility, to make me smile, even if it was behind a glass wall." She said into my shirt. I smiled with a small laugh. "Then I am glad I gave you that with my company." She looked back up, and I wiped a tear from her eye with my sleeve. "I guess we both helped each other one way or another during the time we've known each other." I said with a smile.

She then laughed, that laugh that calmed my nerves everytime I heard it. "That's the sound I missed." I said with a laugh. We stood there for a moment, not moving as we looked at each other, examining every part of each others faces. Then our eyes locked onto each other, stormy blue against amber. I reached up and gently glided my fingers across her cheek, and pushing her hair back behind her ear. I could feel her breath tickling my face, like a warm breeze. "I...I..." I stuttered before she held up her finger. I raised my eyebrow in confusion. "What are you-" I was cut off again when she came up and kissed me. At that point, my mind short circuited. I could imagine smoke coming out of my ears as my mind went of fire. When she broke away, she smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Well?" She asked. I lost all knowledge on how to speak proper English, so what came out of my mouth was "uuhhh." She laughed again and rapped her arms around my neck, hugging me. I broke out of my daze and hugged her back. "I love you. I have for quite a while actually." I told her. "That makes two of us." She said with a small laugh. She let go and took a step back and smiled. "So, I guess we're dating now?" I asked with a grin on my face. She made a thoughtful look and looked up with her finger on her chin. "Hmm. Not sure." She with a tone to match her face. I rolled my eyes and groaned before walking up to her and kissing her. She went wide eyed at my sudden move, but quickly started to kiss back. When we broke apart, I leaned my forehead against hers. "I ask again, are we dating now?" I asked her. She laughed softy. "And if I don't answer?" She asked. "I'll keep kissing you until you say yes." I told her. She laughed harder. "Well, if you put it that way..." She gave me a peck on the lips. "Yes, we are dating." She answered. I smiled and hugged her again, and she hugged back. We held each other for a couple of minutes, before what previously brought me back came back to mind, making the smile melt off my face. "Blake..." She looked up with a confused look. "Yes?" I loosely twirled her hair around my finger. "What are you gonna do now? They know now, and Weiss is not gonna be as reasonable as Ruby or yang." Her eyes turned sad, and she looked down. "I don't know. All I know is I can't run from this. This place..." she looked up and motioned her hand to Beacon. "Is my home now, and I can't run from that." I thought for a moment. "Let's give this time to cool down by staying out for a bit." She looked at me with a questioning look. "Excuse me?" I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. "Well, I got enough money to rent out a room in at a hotel in town, but it might not be great because of my current amount of lien." I said as I shuffled around my wallet. She held up her hand. "Wait, I'm the one who's the problem, why do you need to come?" She asked. I shuffled around. "Well, when you ran out, I kinda...got angry at Weiss." She raised her eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?" She asked. I laughed nervously. "Well, my eyes went red, and my voice changed, so there gonna suspect what I am." I walked up to her. "Besides, it not good if you went alone. Not that I don't think you can't take care of yourself, but for closure at best." I kissed her forehead. "Besides, what kinda boyfriend would I be to let you be like this by yourself?" She sighed. "Fine, were to?" A voice called from above us. "I think I can help with that."

Blaze here

Well, it's finally kicking off. The thing that I promised all those chapters ago. Things are gonna get mushy between them a lot more now. Don't expect anything graphic to happen (but not sure if I can keep that promise.). And if you are wondering why I had to have Joseph and sun fight, well it was for dominance reasons. And besides, I didn't want to make some weird love triangle thing happen, since those are just to dumb for my taste. Sure, it would have been fun to write at times, but I want to get these two together so I can start getting dramatic later on (dun dun duuun.).

And to the one who complained about my OCs hight, he's based of some of my characteristics, my hight being one of them. Maybe I should have kept that in the summary, but hey, people like the big tough guys. It adds to the personality, and how they act.

And before I forget. Wow, I didn't expect those numbers to get that high. (I'd say the numbers, but Internet here is garbage, so I can't answer it.)

So this is goodbye for now readers. Blaze out.


	17. Chapter 15- Battle at docks and Beast

We sat at a outdoor table on the roof of a café in vale.

Blake sat next to me drinking a cup of tea, while I drank a cup of coffee. I tried to drink the tea before the coffee, but I didn't find it all that great, so I ordered a coffee. I put my coffe down. "So uh, thanks again for letting us stay at your place sun." I said to the one sitting infront of us. He drank from a cup of tea with his tail. "Don't sweat it man, I know what it's like to get ridiculed like she did. Sometimes, you just need to get away for a bit. But I still don't know your reason why you needed to get away. And you two been staying at my place for two days now." He said leaning back. "I'm...um...well..." I looked at blake for help, but she motioned me to move on with her hand. I sighed. I raised my fist, and black smoke started to envelope it. This made them both raise an eyebrow, then it dispersed, surprising them both, but mostly sun. My hand was still human like, but the skin had become pure black, and my fingers were tipped with bleach white claws, and my knuckles had bone plating as did the back of my hand and base of thumb. "What does this look like it belongs to?" I asked sun. He blinked a couple times before answering. "A...a Grimms." he said slowly. I nodded. "Thank the white fang for this." I said pointing to my hand. "Wait, they gave you a Grimm hand?" He asked. I sighed. "No, I got Grimm blood in my veins, giving me a second soul I my body. A false soul you can call it. I can I can change into...something else, but it'll will be most likely as wild as a Grimm." Blake then piped up. "But since when could you do THAT?" She asked, pointing at my hand. I shrugged and shook my hand, turning it back. "I've been secretly practicing during the lockdown?" I told her with a nervous laugh. She shook her head. "So your the one that made those horrid roars at night that scared Ruby to death. I rubbed the back of my head with a weak smile. "I did that?" She grabbed the bridge of her nose. "The fact the you didn't even know it was you frightens me." I shrugged. "Well I can't help it. At that point I lose most control so I got to keep it together. I don't really have the spare energy to hear my own roar." Then sun entered back into the conversation. "So let me get this strait. Your some Grimm-human hybrid, and your a faunes? So he really needs to get out of there." He told us. Me and blake both nervously laughed. "It...gets more complicated." I told him. He looked confused. "How can this get more complicated?" He asked. "Sun...have you ever heard of the white fang?" Asked blake. "Of course. I don't think there a faunes in the world who doesn't know who they are. Bunch of freaks who use power to get what they want if you ask me." He said as he took a sip of tea. "I was a member of the white fang." She said nonchalantly. This made him cough up his tea. "Wait, you were a member of the white fang?!" He said while coughing. "Yes. You can say I was born into it. I was in the front of every rally, every boycott. We were supposed to be a symbol of peace between the faunes of humans. Then, when the leader stepped down, a new one took his place with a new way of thinking. Our protests became organized attacks, and we destroyed stores that wouldn't serve faunes. So I left, before it could get any worse. I got Joseph to thank for that." She told him. He looked back at me. "You helped her escape?" I grabbed my coffee and swirled it around. "Yep. To cut it short, we hijacked a bulldog. Then freefalled couple hundred feet." I said, taking a long sip. Sun looked at me like I was nuts, while blake sipped he tea like nothing was wrong. "So...all that aside, did you guys tell your friends?" He asked. I rubbed the back of my head and looked to the right and Blake looked down sadly. "No. We haven't." Said blake with a defeated tone. "Yeah. It doesn't help that were in a school that trains people to kill Grimm..." I said pointing to myself. "And roommates with the heiress to the Schnee dust company, who by the way, hate the white fang and are kinda shitty to the faunes." I said as i motioned to blake. Sun whistled. "Wow. You two got it rough." Blake rolled her eyes. "That's one way of putting it."

After we had our drinks, we went to walk through town.

"You think they're looking for us?" Blake asked me. "Yep. Right now actually." I answered. She gave me a confused look. "How do you know?" I smirked. "My Grimm blood makes me able to sense negative emotions from others." She nodded. "But how do you know it's them?" I shrugged. "Different people give off a different feel. I can get a vague feeling of who it is if I pay attention to that feel. And three familiar feelings are heading north about ten blocks away, one pissed and the other two worried." I told her. She looked down. "The pissed one is probably Weiss, is it?" I laughed. "From what I'm getting, yeah." Sun walked ahead of us and turned to walk backwards infront of us. "So your like a radar for people in a bad mood?" I thought for a moment. "Yeah...guess I am." We both laughed, while blake just shook her head. "Your both idiots." I smiled and pulled her close to me. "Yes, but you love this idiot." She groaned, but smiled a little.

Later on, we passed the dust store that was broken in. "So, you think this was the white fangs doing?" I asked. Blake sighed. "If so, they never needed this much dust before. It doesn't make sense." She said with disbelief. Sun then started to look like he had an idea. "Maybe they don't." I gave him a funny look. "What?" He went on. "If we go to the place were they would go, but didn't find them there, that means they didn't do it, right?" Blake thought for a moment. "But where would we find that much dust?" Sun thought again. "There's a dust shipment coming in tonight. A huge Schnee dust company freighter." Blake turned to him wide eyed. "You think that will work?" He shrugged. "Only one way to find out." I clapped my hands in enthusiasm. "Alright, we're gonna be bustin heads tonight."

Later that night, we went onto the roof of a warehouse at the docks, watching the shipment.

"Well, I'm pretty bored." I said as I layed on my back, looking into the sky. Blake sighed and looked at me. "What did you expect?" She was on her stomach watching the docks with a pair of binoculars. "I dunno. Some assholes at the docks." I answered. She fully turned to me. "We're here to see if it's the white fang that's stealing the dust." She hissed. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Just restless, that's all." I said, putting my hands up defensively. She returned to watching the docks. "Why's that?" She asked. "It's just...if I see white fang members...I don't think I'll hold back. At all." I answered. She went silent for a minute. "I don't expect you to. Just...let me try to see why they are doing this if they are doing it first." She said with hesitance. I rolled over next to her. "Okay, I promise, alright? I'll wait whether you say to or not." I said, kissing her on the cheek. She leaned into me. "Thank You." She said nuzzling my shoulder. I laughed. "I couldn't break a promise with you, now could I?"

We sat there for a few minutes, untilI noticed something.

"Hey, where's sun?" I asked. Blake looked up. "He said he went to go get some food." I raised my brow. "When did he have money on him?" She opened her mouth, but closed it and thought. The next thing we knew, he was next to us with two arm fulls of apples. "Speak of the devil." I said as he sat down. "Who?" Asked blake and sun in union. "Uh, no one. Hey sun, where'd you get the apples." I quickly said to avoid explaining the devil. "Oh, I snatched them so we could eat." He said as he took a bite out of one. I stared at him with my jaw hanging, and blake shook her head. "Do you always break the law without a second thought?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Weren't you in a cult or something?" She gave him a dirty look. "What, too soon?" He asked. Then the sound of engines appeared above us, making us look up.

A bulldog was heading towards the clearing at the docks. It landed in the clearing, it's back end opening and people with weapons walked out the back. They took positions around the bulldog, securing the perimeter around it. "Alright, grab the tow cables." Ordered the last one to walk out. "Is that them?" Asked sun. I did not answer, since I was to busy trying not to jump down there and attack. "Yes...it's them." Answered blake, who looked down sadly. Then, a voice from the bulldog made me and Blake give are full attention to the bulldog. "What's the holdup?! We're not the most conspicuous criminals, so why don't you animals pick up the pace?" Said a man in a white trench coat, boller hat, with a cane in his hand as he walked out of the bulldog. "Torchwick?" I said in confusion. "This isn't right. The white fang would never work with a human, especially one like that." She said as she drew her weapon and jumped down. "Blake!" I called to her, reaching for her. A hand caught my shoulder. "Remember what she said? Don't comedown until she knows they will attack." Said sun spinning me around. "But she's in danger! The fact that Torchwick is down there means that something is up!" I told him angrily as I turned away and kneeled down at the edge of the building. What I saw had me alst break into a laugh. Blake had Roman in a hostage situation, and the white fang were lowering the weapons. "Holy crap Blake. Way to turn the tables." I said with a smile. That's when it all went to hell. Two more bulldogs appeared overhead, one shining a spot light on blake and Torchwick. Then, an explosion came from were blake and Torchwick was, making blake fly back.

"Blake!" I yelled in panic. I summoned a launcher glyph under me and jumped towards the clearing, landing between blake and Torchwick. He went wide eyed when he saw me, then he smirked. "Why hey there! Didn't we meet some time ago? At a dust shop?" He asked. I only responded by slamming my fists together and unfurling my gauntlets, then charging charging him with a yell. He raised his cane and shot at me while I lunged at him. The shot hit me on the shoulder, throwing me off balance and missing him, not before I slashed his arm with the claws of my gauntlets. When I landed, I rolled back up into a fighting position, ready to charge again. I heard the sound of a magazine loading, and turned to the noise. Three white fang members had loaded there weapons and started shooting at me. I summoned a shield glyph to stop them, but more were coming. I summoned multiple glyphs around me to stop the bullets, but they started to pass through. A bullet caught me in the right leg, and then the left shoulder. "You little...!" Was all I could say before one hite in the center of the chest. I felt extreme pain shoot through my entire body, and I couldn't hold up my shields any longer. I got Basicaly lit up, getting shot in multiple parts of the body. I collapsed onto the ground, and they advanced on me. The world was fadeing In and out, and everything was background noise. I saw blake getting up, yelling something I couldn't make out. Roman looked at me with distance as he smoked a cigar, and then turned to blake, who he raised his cane too. I tried to get up, but I was smacked in the back of the head, knocking me back down. Just as he was gonna shoot blake, something yellow hit him in the face, knocking him off balance. When he threw it off, sun flew down and kicked him in the face and rolled next to Blake, unfolding his staff. He slightly turned to Blake and said something, and she nodded. Next thing I knew, it seemed like there was multiple of her, like after images as she ran behind some crates. One white fang member ran past me, and I threw my arm forward and caught his leg, making him fall to the ground. When he started to get up and turned ti point his gun at me, I threw myself ontop of him, knocking him to thee ground, and the gun out of his hands. I grabbed the gun the ground and started to shoot him at point blank. I then rolled to see the other faunes, but I almost blacked out from the pain. "Shit...so that was just adrenaline, huh?" I thought to myself. I finally looked at myself, and saw that I was bleeding pretty bad from multiple holes on my body. White fang soldiers ran up to me, three in total, and trained there guns on me. I sighed and layed back. "Well, I made it longer than I thought I would." I thought to myself. I closed my eyes, waiting for that one bullet. But nothing happened. I only heard what seemed to be yelling and gunfire, with the sound of a blade being swung. I opened my eyes, and saw that blake had dispatched the three faunes. She turned to me and her eyes went wide with fear. She knelt next to me, looking all over my body, examining the damage. "Hey..." I managed to say to her. She turned to me, having the same expression on her face, but she had tears welling up in her eyes. "How my face?" I asked with a smile. She started to cry, but had a slight smile. She nodded, and said something that sounded like "no better than before". I managed a weak laugh, but then started to cough, blood flying out of my mouth. She put her finger against my lips, telling me to be quite. She ran behind me, and I felt something reach under my arms, and I was dragged behind a crate. She propped me up against it. "Wait here, ok?" She told me. I responded with a nod. And she ran back to join the fight. I then started to call Atlas.

"_Atlas."_

"_Yes?"_

"_What are my chances right now_?"

"_Hm. I'd say low, as of this moment_."

"_And if I turn_?"

"_The bleeding will stop and the wounds will close._"

I swallowed hard. "_Let's just get it done_."

He laughed. "_One of your better ideas, that's for sure_."

Black smoke started to pour out of my wounds and envelope my body. My eyesight went red, and the smoke dissipated. I looked at my hands, and they were both as I showed sun that morning. I looked into a window on the side of the warehouse. I had the same Grimm mask on, except it was more beat like than a human skull. My arms were plated with bone plates on the forearm, biceps and shoulders. My torso had bone plates covering the front, and a line of over lapping each other from the back of my neck to the end of my tailbone. I had a tail sprouting from above my rear end, it being slightly longer than my body. It had overlapping bone plating as well, and was with a slight curved bone blade. My legs were armored on the outside and front of my thighs, and all around on my calves. My feet had plating on the top of my feet, with my toes haveing claws on them, sharp on the top and bottom of them. I opened my mouth, and I saw that my teeth were pointed. When I backed up, I noticed that I was about a foot and a half taller. I grunted with satisfaction and turned around. I jumped onto box, and saw that reinforcements had came, and not for us.

Blake was fighting with Roman, while sun was fighting some white fang soldiers. I hopped down and walked towards a group of white fang soldiers. When they saw me, they all turned in surprise. Some ran away, while the rest raised there weapons and started to shoot. I raised my hand and summoned a pure black shield glyph instead of a black and white one, blocking the bullets as I walked forward. As they ran out of round, they all ran except for one, who was too busy fumbling with his magazine to see me. When he loaded his gun and looked up, I was right in his face. He tried to raise his gun, but I grabbed him by the neck and raised him, making him drop his gun. I pulled him closer till we were face to face. "What are you here for?" I asked calmly , multiple voices coming from my mouth, now of a lower pitch. "W-we came t-take the dust h-here!" He yelled in fear.

"And why are you doing this?"

"I-I don't know!"

"You are lying." I said as I brought my tail to his throat.

"No, believe me. W-we only were told to collect the dust delivery! I swear!"

"Then you are not worth my time."

He yelled in protest as reared my tail back, the point pointing at his chest. I brought it towards his heart, but stopped at what he said next. "N-no stop! Please! I-i got kids! The white fang offers them protection if I do there work! If I die, I don't know what will happen to them!" He cried out. I stopped moving, thinking about what he said. I then threw him to the side, making him slam against a cargo container. He got up holding his side, groaning in pain. "Get out of here. And if I ever find out that you were lying..." I swiped my tail across the ground, cutting the cement like butter. "There will be pain." He nodded vigorously and ran off, away from the docks. I turned towards the fighting, and saw that eight white fang soldiers were charging me with blades. I smirked at this. "Now it's interesting."

I rushed forward and got low before slashing upwards with my claws, sending one of them flying up. I spun and punched another in the chest, earning a crunch noise and sending him flying into another. The one that I sent flying came down, and impaled him with my tail. I whipped my tail at another one, sending the dead one flying at him and hitting him in the face, knocking him to the ground and knocking the mask off as well. I jumped up into the air and brought both feet down on top of him like a stomp, killing him instantly. One came up from behind me and stroked downwards with his blade, but I paried with my tail, sending it flying behind him. I turned and pointed my fingers, were I then stabbed him through the chest with my arm. I walked to the other ones with him still on my arm. One of them charged, and I flung my arm at him, sending the corpse at his legs, tripping him. He fell to the ground, and when he looked up, he was met by a stomp to the face. At this point, the other three took out there side arms and started to shoot. The bullets bounced off my armor, until one of them grazed my cheek. I felt it and looked at the blood on my fingers. It evaporated into smoke as I watched it. I looked up, and saw that they were trying to find more rounds to shoot on them. I made my way over to them, walking. When they looked up, I rushed, palm striking one in the face, then swiping another ones legs out with my tail, then impaling him with my tail. The last one fell on his back and tried to crawl away, but I grabbed his leg and raised him up by it. He grabbed a blade from the ground as he went up and swung at my side. I raised my arm and blocked it quicker than he could swing. It broke offy arm, and he was left with nothing but a hilt. I swung him over my head and into the ground on my other side, repeating this until he was a mangled mess.

When I was finished, I turned to the others. Sun had just finished off his last white fang soldier, knocking him out with a swing to the head with his staff. When he turned into direction, his face became a mixture of shock, horror, and fear. I turned to Blake, not bothering with sun. She was having a one on one with Roman, blocking, dodging, and parrying his attacks. But roman was also doing the same, if not, better. I started to move towards her to help, but that's when Roman cought her off guard, and shot her point blank, sending her flying. "Blake!" I yelled as I charged roman. He saw me, then looked up above blake. He shot something above her, making a large snapping sound. When I looked at what had happened, the massive cargo container was already falling towards the unmoving blake.

With no thought at all, I launched myself towards her and underneath the container. When I got under, I quickly raised my hand in hopes to catch it. When i cought it, my entire body screamed in pain. I yelled in pain as the giant metal box slowly pushed down on me, and towards blake. "Sun!" I yelled in agony. I could hear the sound of running footsteps, and someone sliding on the ground. "What? What?!" He yelled in panick. "Get...blake...out..." I said through clenched teeth. His eyes went wide. "What about yo-" I cut him off angrily. "Don't worry about that! Just get her out!" He hesitated, then nodded and grabbed blake my under her arms, dragging her out.

"_Atlas_!"

"_Yes_?"

"_Lend me more strength_!"

"_If I do, your not gonna retain your full human form_."

"_I don't care! Hurry_!"

"_Fine. But what primary object will be retained?"_

I thought for a moment. "_Destroy the enemy_, _and protect my ally's._"

My body went numb, and black smoke enveloped me once again. As my mind slipped into nothingness, one thought was on my mind. _Kill. Destroy. Massacre._

BLAKE POV

My body felt like it was like iron.

I tried to move, but my actions were slowed, and it stung my muscles when I did so. My vision was blurred, and sound seemed to be muffled. I turned to my right, and saw the blurred form of sun, who seemed to be peeking over a crate at something.

"S-sun?" I called weakly. He whipped his head towards me and his eyes went wide.

"Blake! Oh thank dust your alright!" He cried in relief. I tried to get up, but he held me back down.

"Take it easy. Listen, get your strength back. We're gonna need to run." He told me as he looked back over the crate.

"Run? Why do we need to run?" I said, my vision and hearing clearing and the weight lifting from my body. "Wait, where's Joseph?"

Sun turned back to me with a grim look. "I think...that is him." He said, pointing a finger over the crates.

With some effort, I pulled myself up to look over the crate, and my heart froze. "Oh no.." I said with horror and sadness.

The docks look like a tornado of blades and cannons had gone through, turning the docks into the aftermaths of a war. The ground had giant gouges streak across it in multiple areas and scorch marks dotted here and there. What made the scene even more horrific was bodies. White fang members were broken and mangled, laying in horrific position, some without a limb or two, and others with really nothing to begin with, just scrap of clothing and blood.

The sounds of running came from behind some cargo containers. Out came running a white fang member, who ran with a limp in his step, holding his arm. His mask was off, revealing eyes with tears that ran down his face. "Help! Help me!" He screamed with fear, looking back behind him.

Then something caught my eye. A giant streak of blake flew across the sky from behind the white fang member, twisted mid air, and landed infront of him with a boom. What I saw made me catch my breath in shock.

A Grimm towered above the white fang member at three times its hight on all fours. It's head was slightly pointed towards the front, with a bone mask that had two outgrowths pointing out where ears would be. It had glowing red eyes with red markings on its mask that glowed as well. It's teeth like a wolves, stained with red. It's torso had multiple bone plates coverings chest and sides, and overlapping bone plates, which also had glowing red markings, going down its back, coving it's back from the top of its kneck to its lower back. It's arms looked human like, with bone spikes coming out of its shoulders and elbows, and bone plating covering its forearms and biceps. It's hands had bone plating covering them as well, with plating on the back of its hand, and fingers tipped with bone blades, also stained red. It's legs looked more beast like than its arms. They were shaped Iike a wolves, it's bone spikes patruding from where it's legs connect to its body, and out its knees, with bone plating covering its thighs and calves. It's feet were a cross between a foot and a paw. It also had a tail that was the length of the rest of its body, with bone plating covering it from were it connected to the body, to just the end of the tail, were it turned into a slightly curved, pointed bone blade.

The white fang member fell on his rear, crying out in terror. The Grimm snarled, and raised its tail. The faunes raised his arms In defense, shaking with fear. Quicker than my eyes could follow, it lashed its tail out, like a streak of black, cutting threw the white fang member. At first, nothing happened. But then his upper half fell down backwards, while his lower half slumped forward before falling to the side. The Grimm then stood on its back legs, and threw its head back, letting out a earth shattering roar, which sounded like a mix between a elephant, lion, and wolf.

I ducked back down. "Is that..." I started out to say before losing my voice.

"Yeah, that's Joseph." Sun told me. "Turned into that after he saved you."

"Saved me?" I thought. The last thing I remember was an explosion, and blacking out.

"Yeah. You went flying and landed under a suspended cargo container. A big one too. Joseph ran under next to you and caught it before it landed on you." He looked down. "He was already turned into some beast, able to destroy a group of the white fang without breaking a sweat, but it was to much for him. He told me...to get you out, so you didn't get hurt. When I came back to help...he had already turned into that thing. I've been hiding back here ever since."

I nodded. "And what happened to roman?" I asked. Sun shook his head.

"He got away, but used the white fang as cover, a distraction to escape, getting only one fair sized cargo container." He slammed his fist into the ground. "He is lower than scum."

I expected as much. Torchwick didn't seem to care at all about the faunes. I shook my head. "Cover me." I told him.

He gave me a confused look. "What are you...hey, wait!" He yelled as I vaulted over the crate, running towards the Grimm.

"Joseph!" I yelled as I sprinted towards the Grimm. "Snap out of it!"

It turned towards me, tilting its head. I stopped infront of it, standing still. It landed on all fours and took a step at me, sniffing the air around me. I brought its head back, examining me. It started to move its head closer, and I closed my eyes in fear. I felt something smooth and cold, like marble, push against me and making me stumble back. I opened my eyes, and it was nuzzling its head against me, a low but soft rumbling coming from it, it's eyes turning a soft yellow glow . Tears welled in my eyes, and I cried out in happiness and relief, hugging the top of its head. "Thank you...Thank you..." I repeated between sniffles. I looked at sun, who stood off to the side, dumbfounded. "This, is the strangest thing I've ever seen. Ever. Of all time." I laughed and turned back to Joseph, rubbing the back of his head. Then a shot rang out, sending sparks flying off of his mask.

He reared back and roared in anger, his eyes blazing red once again. I looked at the direction we're the shot came from, and saw Ruby holding crescent rose in rifle form, pointing at Joseph.

"Ruby!" I cried out in horror. What was she doing!? She yelled back.

"Blake, get out of there! That's a grim!" She yelled as she shot again, this time hitting him in the eyes, earning a pained roar.

"Stop it! Your hurting him!" I yelled back up. She lowered her weapon slightly.

"Wait, HIM!?" She called back down in confusion. I didn't get a chance to explain before Joseph took a running leap at Ruby, roaring in anger.

He smashed down at where she was. When he lifted his fist, he looked up and turned his head, looking for something. More shots rang down from above him, nailing him in the back and sparking off his armor.

I looked up and saw Ruby maybe twenty feet above Joseph, reloading a magazine and quicksteped down to the ground. When she landed, she bursted towards me, grabbing me.

"Come on! We got to go!" She yelled as she pulled my arm. I slapped her arm away angrily. "Do you even know what you did!?"

She turned around. "What are you talking about?!" I pointed towards Joseph. "That's Joseph! Didn't you find it weird that it wasn't attacking me!?"

Ruby was about to answer, but a roar behind me made her raise her weapon and take aim. I turned to find Joseph charging forward, one of his eyes blazing red while the other poured out black smoke.

I stepped in front of Ruby and faced him, spreading my arms. Ruby yelled in protest behind me, but I held my ground. He kept charging, showing no signs of slowing down, but I still held my ground. "Please...stop." I whispered, closing my eyes.

I heard the sound of cement being ripped apart, and the sound of something slamming into the ground. I opened one eye slightly to see what it was. Joseph had skidded to a stop only a couple feet away. His eye still burned red, and he had a snarl on his face, but it was directed past me, towards Ruby.

"Joseph, listen to me. This is Ruby, remember? Your friend. OUR friend. She's not a enemy, shes a friend. She didn't mean to hurt you." I pleaded to him. "So please, calm down."

His eye stayed red, but it was not a fiery as before. His other eye had a continuously growing red light in it. I stroked the top of his head, in hopes to calm him down further.

"Unbelievable." I heard Ruby say behind me. I turned and found her dumbstruck, eyes wide and jaw hanging open. "This...this is unreal. Is this actually Joseph?" She asked

I nodded. "I'll explain later." I told her. She didn't seem happy with this, but she nodded. "Now, where's sun? Sun?!"

"Over here!" He called from the side. I turned to find him step out from behind some boxes. "In my defense, I saw him in that frenzy before, so I got my reason to be scared." He said as he ran over.

"Alright, so we go into hiding until he turns back, then everything's normal?" He asked. I nodded. "That's about it." I saw Ruby shuffling around. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"There's a slight problem.." She spoke, not meeting my eyes. "What do you meen by that?" I asked. "When I saw Joseph and thought he was a Grimm...well he's a big Grimm and we're in the city so..." My eyes went wide with realization as to what she was talking about. "You didn't-" that's when spotlights shone from above at multiple angles.

Massive airships, like the ones we arrived on but more militarized, hung in the air. Without warning, cable wires shot from them, lashing around Joseph's arms, legs, and kneck. He roared in outrage and pulled on the cords, making the airships he was pulling on tilt slightly. Electric shocks were then introduced to the equation, making his roar go from one of anger to pain. Bullheads then flew in, dropping off soldiers and mechs. The soldiers surrounded him and some grabbed us and dragged us away. I kicked and screamed for them to let me go. I then felt a pain in my arm, and my vision started to blur. As they carried me into the bulldog, the last thing I saw before falling under was the sight of Joseph falling over, letting out a small whine.

ELSEWHERE

Roman flipped a table in frustration.

"Son of a...stupid little...AARGH!" he yelled as threw his chair. "No need to be so upset roman." Said a voice from behind him.

He turned around and straitened his composure, but still get his anger on his face. "Cinder, this shipment would have been a MASSIVE boost in this operation, so sorry if I'm a bit mad." He said as he walked past her towards the window that looked into there base of operations. "Never mind that now. We got a visitor." She said as she walked up to him and whispered into his ear, making him jerk back. "Behave now." Said cinder as she walked out the door and closed it.

The door opened, and roman didn't bother looking to see who it was. "If you haven't noticed, I'm not in the mood, so don't waste my time." He called over his shoulder. "It's seems you humans are bad mannered as usual."

Roman turned, raising his cane. "Listen here you-" he stopped when he was met with the barrel of a rifle. "That's not a wise decision."

At the other side of the rifle was young looking man that stood a couple inches above roman, with dirty blonde hair in a clean cut. He a white coat with the white fang logo above where the heart is, a white T-shirt, and a holster at his side under the coat. He wore black dress pants, with shoes to match.

"Well isn't this great." Groaned roman, not lowering his cane. "If you put down your weapon, I will as well." Said the younger blonde.

Roman hesitated, but he brought his cane back down to his side and leaned on it. The other ones rifle collapsed into a pistol, where he then holstered it.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jack Leonardo. You can call me proffesor, if you must." Roman lit a cigar. "Yeah, I'm just gonna call you jack, alright?"

He blew smoke into the air. "So, care to explain why your here disturbing my peace?" Asked roman as he knocked off some ash from his cigar. Jack looked down at the broken chair and raised a brow. "You are aware that there are multiple branches of the white fang? This one being the one were the thugs dwell, so they are put on hit missions and thieving." He said as he looked out the window. "What's your point?" Asked roman with a yawn.

"I am from the scientific research department of the white fang. A very important one in fact." He said as he walked away from the window and grabbed a chair. "Whats this got to do with me?" Asked roman, slightly annoyed now.

Jack dusted off the chair and sat in it. "You had a run in with what your men call a massive Grimm, right?" Roman leaned against the wall, crushing the cigar under his cane. "What, you saying you had something to do with it?"

Jack laughe softy. "No, but we do know what it is." He said as he pulled out a scroll and handed it to roman. Roman took it and a video was playing. The video was from the first person view of a white fang soldier, who was shooting at a teen with gauntlets." Ain't this the kid from last night?" Asked roman, raising a brow. "Keep watching." Urged Jack.

Roman kept watching, and saw everything he basically saw from his own perspective. "What does this go-" he stopped because of what he saw. A humanoid creature came into view, the one that charged him at the docks, and it was walking towards the camera with its hand up, a glowing black glyph in front of it. The one with the camera shot at it, but the bullets just harmlessly bounced off the glyph. The camera holder ran away, dropping his gun. There was just a couple of minutes of the holder hiding in a open cargo container, breathing heavily. Then something ripped off the top of the container. When the holder looked up, he was met with a giant fanged mouth coming at him open. The camera the turned black, and went on repeat.

"As you can see, when one disappeared, the other appeared." Said Jack with a smirk. Roman looked up. "your saying that this kid was these things, aren't you?" Jack leaned forward. "You ever heard of the GGP?"

"What are you on about?" Said roman, giving a funny look. "Grimm Genetics Program. The combination of Grimm and human DNA." Said Jack as he took back the scroll. "That boy, is subject 001. The first, and only successful project in the program." He stood up with a smile. "And roman, we request your assistance in retrieving him."

"...ok. Let's say that what your saying isn't only impossible to be true, but dumb. And let's say I agree to help. What's in it for me?" He asked. Jake snapped his fingers, and a white fang soldier walked in carrying a briefcase. He handed to Jack, which he then opened it to show the contents of it to roman. "1,000,000 lien if he's back in his cell alive." Roman grabbed one of the cards and smirked. "Well then, let's retrieve this lost pup."


	18. Chapter 16- Lies spread and Truths told

I woke up with my hands chained together.

At first I thought that I was captured by the white fang again, since this is close to how they introduced themselves to me. But then I looked around, and saw that it was a room very similar to the one I was in when Ozpin asked me if I wanted to come to beacon, except more locked up. There was bars on the window, and a black wall of glass to my right. The door has a lock in it at the center of it, with the door being split in two vertically. I tried to lift my hands, but they were connected to the table. Then my saw my hands. They were...different, colour wise. They were tinted grey, like i became a ghost of my former self. I moved my tongue across my mouth, since it was dry, and found my canines a bit sharper than before. I looked at the table, and saw a reflection of my face on the top. My irises had become a dark shade of yellow, glowing faintly like dying lights. In fear, I spoke a couple words. I sighed in relief when I found my voice didn't change. Was this because of that last transformation? I wasn't sure. Before I tried anything else, a beep came from the door. The lock turned once, and opened, letting in Ozpin, who held two mugs of coffee.

"Hello Joseph." He said as the doors behind him closed. I responded my giving him a suspicious look, moving my eyes from the coffee to his face and back. "It's not drugged, incase you are wondering. I just want to chat." He said as he pulled out a chair across from me and sat down.

"You mean interrogation?" I said leaning forward. He sighed. "Joseph, please know that I did everything in my power to make our conversation not from behind a glass wall with you in straps and chains." I raised an eyebrow and hesitantly took a cup of coffee.

"Alright. What do you want to talk about?" I asked, taking a sip. "What you are." He said, crossing his arms on the table. I sighed. "I'm a subject of an experiment-" I was cut off my ozpin.

"Not that." I gave him a confused look. "What?" He took out a scroll. "Before you woke up, they ran some blood tests on you, and found something odd." He said as he handed the scroll to me.

It had a picture of my blood cells, since they were plain red cells. There was ones that stood out though. Those ones seemed to be like they were a contained liquid them selves, black and red moving like they were lava in the form of blood cells. "We already determined that the black and red cells are alien, since they are the minority, but these red cells contain no dust at the slightest. Just what are you?" He asked, taking a sip of his drink.

I sighed. "Have you ever thought that there could be life out there? Like, a different planet?" I asked. "The thought crossed my mind once or twice, but we're not really worried about that." I nodded. "Okay. Now, what about...alternate realities, or different dimensions?" This made him freeze. He quickly regained his composure, but it was obvious that I struck something. "Go on."

"I'm human...but a different one. I'm from a reality were this world we're on...is fiction." I told him. He didn't say a thing. "This world, this reality, is a animated Internet series, revolving around team RWBY. I'm not apart of it, obviously, but it revolves around there time here at beacon." He sipped his drink. "So you watched this show" I nodded.

"Yeah. I like it. Well, when I was able to watch it I did, but I can't now." He placed his drink down. "And how long have you been on remnant?" I sighed "almost three years. I know all this sounds ludicrous, but you got to believe me. I'm-"

"I believe you." He said as he typed something onto his scroll. "See, I knew you wouldn't, but...wait, you do?" I asked in surprise. He nodded.

"Here on Remnant, we use dust as a energy resource, correct?" I nodded. "Well, dust let's off a type of reading of great power. The bigger the concentration of dust, the stronger the reading. Each kingdom has a beacon that searches for these signals. But around the time you are saying you came here..." He showed me the scroll. "Two very large, very powerful spikes of energy happened in these areas." He pointed at one of the cities, then at a area far out into the wilderness.

I furrowed my brows as I looked at the areas. "That second area...are the trees there...bigger than most? Like tall and wide?" He raised a brow. "Yes, why?" I looked down for a minute at the table. "That's...were I woke up. A big, glowing blue ball of light absorbed me and this metal box back on my planet..."

He typed in something else. "This box?" He asked, showing me another picture. The picture was of a small cargo container looking box with a keypad on it and the Schnee dust company logo on it. "Yes! That...that box! It started it all!" I said, getting slightly angry. That damn box...if it never appeared, I'd still have a normal human life. "Calm down. Do you know what was in that box?"

"Yeah, some ancient knife created by some guys who lived a long time ago. Can keep a dead Grimms physical form intact." He nodded with a slight smile. "And is a family heirloom to the Schnee dust company, one passed downgeneration to generation." I laughed a bit. "So that family was also master forgers or something?" He shook his head.

"No. The Schnee family members have always been known to have great skill in manipulating dust. That knife is infused with a special dust that has been lost and forgotten by all, except the head of certain important families, Mr Schnee being a example." I nodded. "But how do you know of it?" He smiled. "Haveing a position like mine and having certain friends can give you some very interesting information." His smiled dropped slowly, like a bad thought crossed his mind.

"Just like the name of a certain group miss Belladonna used to be apart of." My eyes went wide, and I tried to lunge, but chains glowed and held me. "If ANYTHING happens to her, I swear-" he held his hand up. "But...if you agree to cooperate with me and my colleagues, I can drop the charges on miss belladonna...and you." I sat back down, still tense.

"Mean..." He drank his coffee. "Meaning that the attack on cardin won't be held against you. But that will be harder to cover up. You made quite a ruckus at the docks, and how you look now will raise suspicions." I thought for a moment. "I'll think of something." He smiled.

"Alright then. And one last thing." I shrugged. "What's there to ask?" He swirled his drink around. "Care to tell me what type of world you hail from?" That caught me of guard. As much as I hated to admit, but lots of the stuff about my old life and how everything functioned was kinda foggy. "I'll give you what I can."

As I talked about earth and everything that happened on it, memories surfaced one by one, giving me more to talk about. The education system, politics, countries, and more came back to me. I honestly started to feel homesick as I went on. "Hmm. I see. Your people seem to be more...malicious than the inhabitants of remnant." He said with a chuckle. I shrugged. "What can I say? Without the worry of chaotic beings and a overgrown population, we find lots of ways to hate each other and fight. Our first world war was just a giant domino affect of if you do this to that country, I'll do this to you."

"Anything else you care to share with me?" I smiled and shook my head. "Besides some personal info, not really." He laughed. "I see. Thank you for your time, Joseph. Now, about your plan..."

I stood off to the side about a couple feet from ozpin, who was talking at podium with cameras trained on him.

"This is Joseph Hōno. Some of you know him as a classmate, a friend. Some maybe a enemy, or rival. He is also not just a regular being, but part of a long lost species born from both the darkness and dust. A species which he told us to be labeled as The Old Ones, since his kind is older than both human and faunes alike. He is one of the few of his kind that has shown himself to us. And I will continue to let him attend my academy, for he is also a great asset to our battle against the darkness, for his power can outmatched the strongest of Grimm kind alike." The cameras turned to me. "Bit much." I thought to myself. I coughed to clear my throat.

"Hello. What he said was true, I am part of a forgotten species of being of the dark and dust. And yeah, I don't look all that friendly, but hey, I'm honestly no different than any other eighteen year old hunter in training. If you got any questions, feel free to ask right now." A bunch of hands raised up. "Yes, you in the blue coat and glasse" I said pointing to one of the people in the crowd. He pulled out a scroll. "Did you have anything to do with the attack on the student Cardin Winchester, who was attacked by a Grimm human being?" Wow that was quick. "No actually, that wasn't me. That was one of my other kind, a reason why we died out." I saw multiple people take out there scrolls now. "We died out because of our ability. Our ability-" I raised my hand, changing it to its Grimm form I showed a the coffee shop, earning a collective amount of gasps and pictures being taken. "to change our physical form to one of a Grimms. This is only a minor example of my ability. To use it fully, effects my mind, and what I found out recently, my overall normal physical appearance." I said, spreading my arms. "How I just found out recently, you may ask? Well, from fully turning some years back, and seeing the aftermath of my destruction, I've grown to fear my Grimm self, like any other reasonable person would." I turned my hand back. "But recently, I've been training it like a muscle, taming it like one tames a wild animal. It takes time and patience, but it can be done, since I can take on what I call a stage two Grimm form without being taken over by my Grimm self. The one you call the reaper, is one of my kind. A older one to. When we are fully consumed by our Grimm selves, we lose our humanity and become Grimm ourselves, to a extent. We take on the characteristics of Grimm permanently, but we retain one shred of intelligence left, a sort of last command that you follow until you die. The reaper is known as a being that takes vengeance on those who are horrible to others of their kind, or close to it. I know cardin, and he is no good boy. I'm not saying he deserved it, I'm saying that he did something that made this Old One very mad at him. Anymore questions?" I asked. Less hands then before were raised, but there was still some. "You in the front here." A younger girl steppe forward. "If you were to also turn full Grimm, what would your last protocol be?" I thought for a moment. "Not sure. Really depends on what's happening as it happens. Let's say that II'm about to die by Grimm, and the only way for me to survive is to fully turn. I'd make my last protocol to slaughter the Grimm." I said with a shrug. "Anymore questions?" No one raised a hand. "Alright. If that's it, its lunchtime right now, and I'm hungry." I said as I walked off the stage. Other officials came to speak about other things, but I didn't stay to listen, since I was actually hungry.

I went to a nearby café, since that seems to be everywhere in this city.

"Are cafés the fast food restaurants of remnant or something?" I thought to myself as I ate a bagel with cream cheese. "Still, it's not bad." I thought to myself. The people in the café kept giving my weird looks, but I didn't mind, since I felt no real negative feelings directed towards me. I focused on my hearing to a group whispering off to my right, and got out words like "last of his kind?" And "kinda feel sad for him". It really surprised my that there wasn't a order for my death yet. Then I felt something that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I felt several familiar signals of negative energy, all directed towards me, coming from strait behind me, one of them being especially dark.

I turn around slowly in my chair, and found my team glaring at me, with blakes glare being the deadliest of all. "Oh...hey guys..." I said weakly while rubbing the back of my head. Their eyes narrowed at me, and it felt like I was a dead man. So I did the most reasonable thing. I made a run for it. I didn't get far before I fell to the ground, unable to move. White glyphs had formed around my legs and arms, like restraints, making me unable to move. "Drag him out." I heard one of them say. Next thing I knew, I was being dragged by my feet on my back down the sidewalk, earning weird looks from other people who passed by.

"Hey guys? Let's talk this out, alright? Guys?" They didn't answer my pleas. We turned into a alleyway, and I swallowed hard. They stopped in a area were no one was around. The glyphs faded and I jumped to my feet. That's when I was bombarded with questions. They asked about what happened that night, what was I, who was I, and others of that sort. "Hey, hey, let's calm down here, alright?" I said through the questions. "Be calm!? You look like something out of a nightmare and you want us to be calm!?" Yelled weiss. "I can't exactly help that, now cam i?" I told her. "We let you stay with us for over half a year, and you didn't say anything about yourself?" Asked Ruby, with slight hurt in her voice. "Yeah, what's the deal man?" Asked Yang, with more annoyance in her voice than hurt. Blake didn't say a word.

"Alright, alright. Keeps your voices down." I hissed. "To be clear, about everything up there was bullshit. From me and ozpin." This earned a shocked look from all of them, and more questions. "Okay, okay, holy crap. Let's talk."

I explained them about what I was, and we're I came from. I told them all about earth, and the similarities and differences of the two worlds. When I got to the lifestyles, Ruby raised her hand. "Yes Ruby." She raised a brow. "How can your people do anything without dust?" I laughed to myself. "We got our own sources of power. The basic ones are fossil fuels, which is the dead carcasses of organic materials from billions of years ago that turned into oil and coal, when these giant lizard creatures we call dinosaurs roamed the planet. We didn't exist until after they died out, so we only know about what we get from there bones. They actually might have been more powerful than Grimm. Then there's green sources of power, which is when we convert sunlight, wind, and water currents into power. I don't really know much on how they do it, so I'm gonna leave it at that." Ruby raised her hand again. "Yes." her expression lit up. "So your people are more on the peaceful side." I sighed in sadness. "No. Far from it. Ever since my people have learned about warfare, history has been filled with it, for many reasons, whether it be skin colour, homeland, beliefs, and more. Whether it be a tribe versus a tribe, or country versus country, it never stops. The tactics have also gotten more brutal as we got more advanced." I paused for a moment. "Mass executions of enemy citizens, bombing of cities, chemical warfare, you name it. Attacking a innocent is just as likely to happen as killing a soldier. It got better in recent years, but it's still there in countries called eastern countries, since there on the east side of the world. I'm western, so we don't see it much. We know it's there, but we tend to not pay attention to it." I After I was done talking, they went and talked among themselves. Ruby then turned to me.

"Joseph, whether your part of a warlike species-" I narrowed my eyes. "Not all my people are nuts. Just the lot of them." Ruby continued on. "And even though I shot you in the eye-" I jumped at this in surprise. "You did what!?" She continued on. "Your still apart of our team, and I hope that you feel the same way as us." I thought for a moment.

"I don't know...you did shoot me..." Ruby stomped her foot. "Joseph!" She whined. "Yeah, I still see you guys as a team." Ruby screamed in joy and jumped at me, hugging me. Yang walked up to me and smacked me on the back, making me lose my balance. Weiss sighed and held out her hand, which I shook with a smile. Then I turned to Blake, who had her arms crossed and gave me a annoyed look.

"Uh, guys? Give us a second?" I asked the other three. Weiss didn't really care all that much, and had to drag away Ruby and yang, who both wanted to stay and watch. When we were alone, I turned back to blake. "So-"

She slapped me.

"I deserve that." She slapped me again.

"That too."

She raised her hand to slap again, but I raised mine and caught it, and the same with her other hand. "Stop slapping me!" I told her. Her face contorted into one of anger, which was accompanied by tears welling in her eyes. "You...you..." Her bottom lip trembled as she buried her face in my chest, yelling into my shirt. "You idiot! What were you thinking!? You could've...you could've.." She started to say. "I could've died." She looked up angrily. "How can you say that so easily?!" I let go of her arms, and she started to pound on my chest with a closed fist. "Because it'll take a lot more than bullets to put me down." I told her with a playful smile. She didn't look up, her shoulders trembling. I grabbed her and hugged her close to me, resting my head on hers. "Besides, if I know that you are in danger in any way, I'll take on any number of bullets for you." I said, kissing the top of her head. "Stop that..." She said without looking up. "Stop what?" She looked up, her eyes tinged red. "Stop making it so hard to hate you!" She said in frustration. I laughed. "I'll take that as agood thing." She gave me a annoyed look, then kissed me. she caught me off guard , but then I started to return the kiss. When we broke apart, she hugged me, rapping her arms around my torso. I hugged back, stroking the back of her head. "I won't ever do anything to hurt you, I promise that." She looked up. "How can I have your word on that?" I thought for a moment. "My word not enough?" She shook her head. She then closed her eyes and reached up to her head. "What are you...oh." I was left stunned at her move. She untied the ribbon from her head and held it to me, completely showing her faunes heritage. "Blake, what are you-" she placed it in my hand. "This is a sign of your promise. I'm sacrificing something for this, so don't ever break it." I held it in my hand clenched it. "Trust me...I won't be breaking this promise." I tabbed it around my hand until it looked like a black ribbon guard you see fist fighters have. "Besides, you can't be the only one to share your identity." She told me with a smirk. I laughed softly and pecked her lips. "Aw, you felt bad for me?" She blushes slightly and looked down with a slight smile. "Well, I think the team has waited long enough. Or at least, they did, RIGHT GUYS?" I called to the direction they left. Ruby fell out from behind the corner on her front with a woomph. Yang walked out, shaking her head with a smile. "How long?" She asked. "Since you turned the corner. You come out too weiss." I called at the corner. She walked out with her arms crossed. "I'm only here because of these dolts." I snickered. "Do you want me to repeat what I heard you say?" Her eyes went wide with surprise and anger. I laughed and turned to Blake, who's face was red as Rubys cape. I rapped my arm around her. "Hey, it's alright. They're our friends, not strangers. They were to find out sooner or later. Although I would have preferred a different way." I said, shooting a glare at yang. "Why me!?" She yelled in defense. "Because your you, yang. Rubys too innocent and Weiss is too prim and proper." I said with a smirk. She struggled to get her words out, then sighed in defeat. "Let's just get back." She said, hanging her head. Ruby and Weiss followed after. I held out my hand with the ribbon on it. "Well, shall we head back home?" I asked. "Let's." She said with a smile. We walked out the alley way, holding hands and her head resting on my shoulder.


	19. Chapter 17- Temptations and new foe Pt1

My first thought was "I haven't had one of these in a while."

Though this dream felt different, like I was more contained than the others. The air itself felt like a living presence. Black smoke limited my vision, making it hard to see even my hands. The ground seemed to shift under my feet. I reached down and felt the ground. It felt like warm leather, which was really creepy. Then I heard a noise. A low rubble that vibrated through the ground and through my bones, followed up by a massive, blud chilling roar that came from up ahead. The smoke swirled around me, and I felt weightless for a couple seconds, before falling towards a dark purple looking light.

Before I hit the ground, I stopped inches from the ground before dropping that last little fall. The ground was cold and smooth, with scratch marks of different sizes strewn across it. I looked up, and there was the giant floating glowing purple crystal in the middle of the room. It casted a eerie light across the room, making my shadow look like it was dancing in slow motion.

It seemed to pulsate some energy off of it, like a heartbeat. I also felt...drawn to it, like a moth to a flame. My body walked forward without my will, bringing me closed to the crystal. I raised my hand and touched it. It stopped pulsating for a second, then made a massive pulse of darkness, making me fall back.

The ground cracked all around me, splitting the ground in several sections. White masks of Grimm floated out of them and hung in the air, all facing the crystal. Following the masks were clouds of black smoke, which followed the masks like they were the body of a snake and the masks were the head.

They formed bodies of Grimm behind the masks and became solid, giving the shapes a face. Grimm of different types have formed, some I could not recognize. They turned to me, but did nothing. They just...stared at me, waiting for something.

Another crevice opened at my feet, with another mask came out. It was a plain mask, with just two slits for the eyes. It turned to me, and a voice that sounded like the earth itself was talking, seemed to speak in my mind.

"_Poor little thing. All alone in this world. There is no one who can share your pain, no one that can fill what you most desire: family. You lost yours, and now you are alone on a world were you are the only one of your kind. Why do you fight this power that you have been gifted with by the foolish mortals of this plane? You have the potential of a true god within you, but you deny that power, as if it were a curse." _

The mask turned away from me and starts to float towards me. My body didn't move, and the voice kept talking.

"_Let it flow through you freely, and you can have anything that you desire: power, fortune, anything that you crave can be given to you. Just let your self go, and embrace the dark."_

The Grimm in the room started to make there noises, let it be howls, squeals, squaks, they made the noise, throwing there heads back as they did so. Then the mask went on my face. It felt like my entire face was being burned. I tried to cry out in pain, but nothing came from my mouth, not even a whisp of air. I clenched my eyes shut, wishing for it to stop. When the pain stopped and I opened my eyes, I was on top of a cliff, looking down at the city of vale, except something was wrong.

The city was on fire. Building were either torn down ready or falling in the process, covered in flames. Screams could be heard coming from the city, filling the air with death. Then large black figures moved across the city, swiping at it, sending debris flying and more screams to erupt. The voice went on.

"_Any and all who oppose you will not be able to stand against you, for there will be nothing for them to stand on to begin with."_

The scene shifted again, and it went to what seemed to be a throne room, with blue fires lighting the dark room in braziers. A royal red carpet led down to a thrones made of what seemed to be weapons and bones, with a smaller version of it to the side. Black whisp in the form of people lined the way down, bowing there heads as I, unwillingly, walked down towards the throne.

"_You can rule as a godking, with no one to stand in your way."_

I sat down on the throne, and rows of black whips formed infront of me, brandishing spears and shields, standing in attention.

_"A dark army to crush those who stand in your way of dominance. And most of all..."_

Wind seemed to blow towards the throne next to me, and a familiar silhouette made of black whisp sat at it.

_"One you desire to rule by your side. She will be treated with upmost respect, as any Queen would be treated."_

I rose from the throne, and the world swirled into darkness, leaving me standing in a black void.

"So choose, boy. Rule with an unstoppable power, or..."

The darkness creeped up my legs, covering my body.

"Be consumed by the dark within you and die."

My body was fully consumed, and then I could speak, though I did not have time to say.

I woke up in cold sweat, breathing heavily. "Holy shit." I mumbled to myself. That was different. Usually it was just someconversation with Atlas. But this was...disturbing. For the first time in a while,I felt...a hunger for power. It's been a long time since I felt that, but it was like tasting a sour candy. Has that moment of sweetness, but the rest leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I peeked over the edge of my bed. Midnight.

Wide awake, I silently jumped down, careful not to disturb the others. The only one that responded to the low amount of noise was blake, who turned in her bed. I walked to the bathroom and closed the door.

I splashed water onto my face from the sink, rubbing my face after. I looked into the mirror, and met what is now my face. It has been about a week since I returned back to school, and as I suspected, people were cold to me when I came back. And why wouldn't they? I'm part Grimm, the thing that they are trained to kill. I sighed and turned off the tap. But things could be worse. No one has attacked me yet. And cardin, I don't think he bought the whole thing about the reaper being a different entity. That, or he's now scared shitless of The Old Ones In general now, since everytime he sees me in the halls he quickens his pace.

I walked out the door, and saw blake, moving in her sleep. She's stopped wearing her ribbon on her head. As expected, the ones who mistreat the faunes started coming at her, but she really didn't need my help. She handled them pretty effectively, some of them ended up crying. When I was around, they veered clear of us, since the first time it happened when we came back, the guy who harassed her got sent flying down the hall.

She started to stir and get up, looking around groggily. I found out that she's a sleepwalker. To be sure, I went to the library she worked at before attending beacon to confirm my suspicions. They confirmed them alright, telling me that they once found her stumbling through the halls, holding a book in her hand. That kinda creeped me out that one, since it sounds like something out of a horror movie.

I sighed and walked over to her as she started to get out of bed. I had a little test to see if she was asleep or not. I raised my right hand and snapped my fingers on her left side. She slowly turned that way and did nothing. I did the same the other, and she responded the same way. She does that when she sleep walks I was told by the librarian. If she's awake, she'll look at you funny, which is understandable. I also learned to let her do her thing most times, since she's dangerous if woken up like this.

She got up and started to walk around. I had to turn her around some times so she didn't bump into the wall or desk. I think she started to register that something was touching her, because when I turned her again, she thrusted her hand and her hand moved like lightning, catching my wrist. I tried to pull away without waking her, but she had it in a iron grip.

I noticed that she started to slump a bit, falling asleep. Before she fell, I caught her with my other arm. She still held tight on my wrist, not making any sign of letting go. I sighed and carried her to her bed. I set her down on the bed, laying her on her back. I tried again to get my hand out of her grip, but she started to pull on my arm. I had to kneel down next to the bed so that I didn't fall on top of her. She continued to pull at me, while starting to make whimpering noises as I resisted.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." I thought to myself. I gently climbed in next to her and sat flat on my back. She rapped herself around my arm as if it were a stuffed animal, and started to breath softly. I sighed again. "Your gonna be the death of me." I thought to myself. Drowsiness started to take hold of me as well, and my eyes began to drop. I did not have anymore dreams that night.

I woke up to the sound of snickering, and the sound of a camera.

My eyes immediately shot open, and I sat strait up. Or at least as strait as I could get, since blake was still holding my arm. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and turned to the right.

Yang was holding up a scroll in compact form, taking a picture of me, while Ruby sat on her bunk giggling to herself. Weiss sat on the bottom bunk and just rolled her eyes. "Well good morning. Seems you had fun last night." Said yang with a grin on her face. I thought for a second, then my face turned scarlet.

"Woah, wait a minute! I didn't-" I was interrupted by the sound of blake yawning and waking up. I slowly turned my head to look at her. At first she seemed confused at what she was holding. She then looked up at me, her eyes going wide. "Hi." I said through a nervous smile. She screamed and pushed me off the bed. I sprawled across the ground, groaning in pain.

"What were you doing in my bed?!" She asked in confusion and slight anger. "Well, you didn't give me much of a choice there." I said as I got up. She went to say something, but her eyes widened with realization, then slumping over with a sigh. "I did it again, didn't i?" I laughed. "Yeah, you did." Yang and Ruby gave a confused look. "She did what?"

"Blakes a sleepwalker." I said as I walked to the dresser. "So what, she drags you into her bed when she's doing that?" Asked yang with a snicker. She then got smacked in the head by a pillow thrown by blake, who gave her a irritated look.

"No, what happened was a compromised route I took. She grabbed hold of my arm last night, and went to full sleep when she did. I had to carry her back to bed, but she still wouldn't let go. So, to keep her from waking, I had to sleep in the same bed." I explained, all while I got my uniform out. "But what were you doing up?" Asked Ruby.

"Not much of a sleeper. I get up sometimes in the middle of the night for no reason." I told her as I opened the bathroom door. "Anymore questions will have to wait, since I'm gonna shower." I said as I closed the door.

When I walked out, weiss was reading some notes, Ruby sat on her bed, swinging her legs back and forth, and yang stood infront of a red faced blake, seeming to be questioning her. I narrowed my eyes and walked towards yang.

"Hey, showers free. What's going on here?" I told them as I was behind yang, making her jump. "Nothing, nothing." She said in a sing song voice as she walked away humming. I sat down next to blake, keeping an eye on yang. "What was that about?" She lowered her face, it turning a tad redder. "She kept asking me if that we...went at it last night, and the sleepwalking thing was just a cover for us being in the same bed.

"Oh come on, that's redicuolous." I said with a laugh. She relaxed a bit, her face returning to natural colour. "Besides, they were in the room, and they'd wake up from the noise." I added with grin. Her face went redder than before. She flicked me in the side of the head while giving me a angry glare. I smiled and hugged her with a laugh.

"Ow! That hurt." She stuck her tongue out at me in response. I kissed her on the tip of the nose, resulting in her rolling her eyes and kissing me back. "Why do I love you?" She asked with a sigh. "I don't know, but I love it that you do." I said as I layed on the bed on my back with a grin. She layed down next to me, curling in close to me. A awe could be heard coming from the opposite side of the room.

I craned my neck to see were that came from. Weiss was still reading her notes, so that's a no. Yang is in the shower, so no again. Ruby was sitting on her top bunk, her arms crossed over her chest while she seemed to be...girling out, or something, so she seemed to be the culprit. "You guys look so CUTE!" She squealed. I rolled my eyes and layed my head back down. Turned on my side and faced blake. She was asleep again. I raised my brow and sat up and grabbed my scroll from the desk next to the bed. I turned it on and looked at it. "Heh. Lucky its the weekend." I thought to myself as I layed back down next to blake. I pulled her closer to me and closed my eyes as well, letting sleep take hold.

I found myself in a empty space, with a black, snake like dragon landing in front of me, cracking the ground.

"Been a while since we talked face to face." I told atlas. "Yes, it has been a while." He hissed in agreement. "Before we get anywhere, I got a question. That...vision I had before, was that your doing?" I asked. He made a growl that can only be described as displeasure. "No it was not. There is something...ancient at work here, with a power only to be described as a gods." I sighed and sat on the ground. "So, some ancient being is now in my head? Great." I mumbled. A rumble came from all around. "Atlas?! The hells happening?!" I yelled in panick. "I do not know, but something is coming." He said as he crouched lower, prepareing to fight.

A bellowing laugh filled the air as a fissure opened in the floor between me and atlas, billowing out black smoke. The smoke shifted and molded until it was a humanoid figure that stood at the same hight as atlas. The only things that I could see it as something else as human was its body was still smoke, just the form of a man. It had four arms sprouting from its shoulders, with clawed hands at the end of each of them, and where it's face should have been was a glowing purple light that took up its entire face.

"Hello Joseph, asleep so soon?" It asked in a mocking tone. Atlas snarled at it and slashed at it with his claws, only for them to pass through it like it didn't exist. It turned to him and made a rumbling noise.

"Ah, so this is your power. A fine level of strength dwells in you. But..." It raised its hand and a black ball of energy formed in his hand and shot at atlas, making him fly backwards with a screech of pain. Suddenly, my chest felt like it was stabbed through the front and out the back with a hot iron rod, making me keel over in pain.

"It is still maturing." He walked over to me and grabbed me by my legs, picking me up and holding me upside down. "Have you thought about my offerring? Do you accept?" It said to me, it's light glowing brighter everytime it says a word. I spat at its face in response. It sailed right through it, and it laughed.

"You mortals are confusing creatures. Some of you want unlimited power at any cost, while others don't care for it whatsoever." It dropped me, and I landed on my feet and jumped back, putting distance between me and it.

"I know what your thinking, and yes, I am your enemy. But, I'm also the split in the path your taking." I spreaded it arms, palms up. "I have created and destroyed powers in this world. Kings have risen..." It raised its hands in glory. "and fallen by my hands." It brought its hands down hard, clenching them.

I saw behind him that atlas got up, creeping up behind it slowly.

"Just what are you anyways?" I asked it. It laughed. "I am one of the many that created this world. A God if you must." I got into a defensive stance. "And where are they?" It hummed, as if it were thinking.

"Do you know what the Grimm are? They are what's left of my kind who perished a millennia ago. The bone masks and armor are the bones of the gods they hail from, their flesh is their flesh. When they died, their bodies were consumed by the earth." I narrowed my eyes.

"And that crystal. What is that?" Atlas was about fifty yards now.

It laughed lightly. "The reason why they all died out. It was what created us, a relic older than my kind. When we found it, we killed each other for it. And after they all died, and I was the last, I became stronger and stronger, for I discovered another thing: it is what makes us powerful." It laughed again, shaking the ground as it did.

"But this is why I offer you a choice. You see, I grew bored of this existence, and I need a predecessor." I sneered at him.

"You want me to take your place?" It scratched what I guess was its chin. "Yes and no. I want you to rule the mortals, but I won't be totally gone. I want you to...work for me, spread darkness throughout the mortals as I rest in the earth."

Atlas was right behind it now.

"You know what? I'm gonna pass on that offer. And you know why?" Its light became more concentrated, like it was squinting. "Whys that?" I raised a glyph. "Because I don't trust myself." I launched a large projectile at it. It raised a hand, and the projectile was absorbed into it. "Really? That's the best you can do." I smirked and stood calm.

"Yeah, but not him." it the wirled around, and found the open mouth of atlas with a black beem shooting out of it. It exploded on contact, smoke and dust rising up. When the dust cleared, it still stood there, but staggered, with some signs of damage.

"So this is how you want to play. Fine then, but remember this name. Norak, for it is the name of the one that will wipe your existence clean." A flag rip in the air formed, and he turned to smoke again and flew throught it. As the last wisp of smoke went through, the world went dark, the sound of my name being called faintly.


	20. Chapter 18- Temptations and new foe Pt2

I woke up in bed, with blake shaking my shoulder, tears in her eyes, yelling my name. "Hey, hey. Take it easy. I'm up, I'm up." She gasped, then hugged me around my neck, crying into my neck. "Oh thank dust, your alive!" She said when she calmed down. Or at least, calmer than she was before. "Wait, what?" I asked confused out of my mind. "You...you were freezing cold, like ice. You didn't have a pulse, and I...i..." She hugged me tighter.

"I thought you died in your sleep!" I hugged her back, rubbing her back in reassurance. "Shh...shh...it's alright. I'm ok, I'm ok." I said softy. she looked at me, her eyes still teary. "What happened to you?!" I thought for a moment. "I...can't really explain." I looked around. "Where's everybody else?" She laughed slightly.

"Ruby went into a state of panic and started running around the school, weiss and yang rushed strait to the infirmary. I nodded and started to get up, forcing blake to move off me, within regret on my part. As I took a step, my leg gave out and I crumbled to one knee. Blake yelled alarm and came down to my hight. "Are you ok?!" I smiled weakly.

"Just...a little weak in the legs." With much effort, I stood back up. I walked towards the door and looked into the hallway. Besides the sound of the noises coming from other dorms, it was silent. "How long ago did they leave?" I asked her.

"About ten minutes should be here in five." I closed the door and walked back to the bed. I sat down, rubbing my face with my hand. "So they're gonna come barging in with medics then?" I asked blake. "Yep." She said as she nodded and sat down next to me.

"Couldn't they have called them and they'd be here already?" Her eyes grew wide, then she bursted out laughing. "Of dust...I wonder if there being told that right now." I laughed with her.

"Yeah. I can imagine the look on yangs face when she-" the door got kicked down, making me and blake yell in surprise.

Yang stood in the doorway, holding a pair of defibrillators in her hand, a blood bag in her mouth, the stand that you put the blood bag on strapped to her back, and a crooked nurses hat on her head.

She spit out the blood bag. "Alright! No one panic! Let's bring him ba-" she stopped when she saw me up, her face not changing, except for a twitching eye. The sound of someone running could be heard coming down the hall.

Weiss appeared in the doorway, breathing heavily. "Yang...you...why did you...do you even know how...wait, what!?" She yelled in shock when she saw me. I smiled weakly at them.

"Hey..." I said, waving my hand at them weakly. Yang threw down the defibrillators and stopped towards me and grabbed by the collar of my shirt.

"You...were...dead! Why...are...you...alive!?" She yelled angrily as she shook me. "Hey! Take it easy!" I said as I tried to pull her hands off me. She finally let go, but was still mad.

"Geez. You sound like your disappointed that I'm alive." I said with a slight grin. "But I just don't get it! You...had...no...pulse! No life! Your skin was colder than the ice in the winter, and yet here you are, like it never happened!" She said, flailing her arms. Weiss stepped in.

"Is there something else you didn't tell about your people? Like reanimation?" She said as she crossed her arms. I held my arms up in defense.

"If my people could do that, we would be LONG gone. And besides, I don't really know myself." I explained to them. Weiss pinched the bridgeof her nose and sighed. "So what? Is this gonna be a regular thing now? We gonna find you as a corpse every now again?" I thought for a moment.

"No. Maybe. Possibly. I'm not sure." They both groaned in annoyance. Just as they were gonna speak again, the sound of quick footsteps could be heard coming down the hall.

We slowly turned towards the door as the sound drew closer. Then suddenly, a flash of red cane strait at me, and the next thing I knew, i was on my back on the floor. "Joseph!" Ruby screamed as she tackled me in the gut. I wheezed as there was no air in my lungs.

"Ow...hey Ruby." I managed to say. She looked at me with a surprised look on her face. "What happened!? You were dead, and we started to freak out, and I didn't know what to do, and-" I held my hand up to silence her. "First, get off me." She nodded and got off. I stood up after and cracked my back.

"Second, I don't know what happened. And third..." I turned to yang. "Did you steal that equipment?" Her eyes grew wide. "Wh-what?! No! Absolutely-"

"Yes she did."

"Weiss!"

"What was the point in a excuse?"

"He could have fell for it!"

"He's not brain dead, unlike you."

The two started to go at it, and I stepped between them. "Wow, ok. One, thank you weiss-" she raised her head in triumph. "And two, yang, bring that stuff back please?" She hung her head and sighed as she picked up the medical eqiupment, mumbling about no one being there.

I sat down on Blakes bed and sighed, holding my head in my hands. "Man this is hectic." Blakes sat down besides me and leaned on me, resting her head on my shoulder. I turned my head to look at her and smiled. I kissed the top of her head. "Well, I'm gonna go grab something to eat in a bit. You guys want anything?" I asked the remainder of the people in the room.

Ruby opened her mouth, about to say something. "No cookies Ruby." I told her, making her hang her head with a sad "aww".

"I'm fine."

"I'll eat later."

I shrugged and got up. "Suit yourselves. I'm starving." I made my way to the door. "See you all in a bit." I called over my shoulder. They said there goodbyes and I walked out the door.

When I got to the cafeteria, i immediately felt the states coming my way. "What's wrong? Never seen a Grimm human?" I thought to myself with a smirk.

An apple came flying at my head, hitting me in the mouth. I turned my head away from the thrower, hearing laughter come from that direction.

"What's wrong? Can't talk with your mouth full?" One of them called over. I turned my head back to them, and they stopped laughing. I caught the apple in my mouth, biting a chunk out and letting it fall to the floor. I ate the peace and smiled.

"Yeah, actually. Didn't really want an apple though." I said as I walked towards them. They leaned away from me as I rested both my hands on the table. "Come on. Who threw it?" I asked in a bittersweet tone. They slid down in two different directions, leaving one of them by himself.

I made my way over to him and sat down next to him, leaning on my elbow. "So, it seems that you been singled out." I said as I picked up an apple from his tray. He stuttered, his eyes darting left and right. "Don't worry. I know it wasn't you." His eyes went wide with shock.

"You know how I know?" I asked him. He shook his head vigorously. "These breakfast combos always come with one apple. Your friend over there..." I turned to look at someone down the table. "Has the combo, and no apple. Plus, the angle is about right for the throw.

He got up and started to run, were as I beamed him in the back of the head with the apple in my hand. It exploded on the back of his head, sending bits of apple here and there. He fell to the ground, holding the back of his head and groaning in pain.

I turned to the rest of them. "Treat me like a monster all you want, just know my wrath is ten times worse than what you do to me." I said, finishing with a growl.

When I left the table, I noticed that the room was silent, all eyes on me. Like nothing happened, I got some eggs and toast with an orange, and sat at a table by myself. When I started to eat, I noticed that everyone was still watching me.

"What? I'm eating. You want a magic trick or something?" I asked them all. They turned away and went on with what they were doing, but I got the feeling that their subject of conversations was different this time.

I continued to eat, and started to think about that dream. "Norak...maybe there's something on him." I took out my scroll and typed in Norak into the search engine. Nothing came up.

"Figures. An ancient being in the planet. Definitely gonna be stuff on him." I started to eat again. "That offer though...I almost took it." And I hated myself for even leaning towards that path. That's always been my problem. Gain the most absolute power available.

I looked at my hand. _Rule as a godking._ You got to be a lunatic to deny that. And I'm just that. A lunatic. Insane. But it's good to be that sometimes. Like when a dark God offers you a job application, and you turn it down. That stuff never ends good for anybody.

I poked my eggs with my fork. "But what if I did accept the offer?" I thought to myself. Maybe I could have given those who I saw fit sanctuary in that world. "Well, to late now." I thought to myself as I finished my breakfast.

I dropped off my tray at the counter and made my way back to my room.

On the way, I felt like I was being followed. Keeping the same pace of speed in my walk, I took a detour away from my room and out the school. I still felt that I was being followed, so I went to the alleyway were I ambushed cardin. I turned around to face who was following me.

I saw nobody, to my surprise. "Hm. I guess I was-" I was cut short of the sound of a blade being drawn from above. I looked up, and rolled out of the way as a sword pierced where I was standing. I looked who it was, and my jaw dropped.

A person, or at least I think it is a person, landed next to the sword, which was in the style of a katana with a red metal as the blade. It was armoured from head to toe like some type of super soldier. My first thought when I saw it was "is that...master chief?". It wasn't, obviously, since I was sure there was no such thing as the UNSC on remnant, but it was the closest thing I could see a similarity in. The difference was that this suit of armour wasn't built for strength, but more for speed, as it was more sleek, and a small thrusters on its back. It's helmet wasn't a full face visor, but two small red lights. It's armour was black, which I thought was dumb, since it was the middle of the day. It also had a sheath at it side that somewhat resembled a shotgun.

"What, I got robots to worry about now?" I said as I got up. It responded by dashing at me, readying its blade. I brought my arms up, turning them into my Grimm arms, readying to block. A blue light covered the person, accompanied by the sound of the deep hum of something charging, and he vanished. I looked up in confusion. "Wait, what?"

The sound came back from above to my right, and i instinctively brought my arms up in a blocking motion. A diving kick struck me in the arms, making me fall back slightly. He used my arms as a springboard and flipped back onto the wall before disappearing again.

I got my footing again and got ready. The sound came again behind me and I turned, only for there to be nothing. It then started to start sounding off at random all around me, making me whip my head around. It came from infront of me, and this time he was there, only he was flying at me, with he blade ready and aimed for my kneck.

I ducted, just narrowly missing his strike and getting a close shave. I thrusted my hand up at his leg, but he disappeared before I could grab him. I noticed something after that.

I stood up strait and relaxed, closing my eyes and listened. The sounds came from all around at random spots, but I didn't react. Then one sound came, and I punched towards it. Blade and armored fist collided, sending sparks flying. We both skidded back.

"Seems I found your weakness." I said with a smirk. He didn't say anything back, but instead sheathed his sword and crouched, still keeping his hand on the handle. I readied my fists. "Come on. Show me what you got." I mumbled.

He shot forward and I pulled back my fist. He slashed and I punched, once again colliding. We kept attacking each other, punches blocked and slashes parried, each collision having a small shock wave to them.

He knicked my arm, and I punched him in the shoulder. We both jumped back, puttingsome distance between ourselves.. "Got anything else?" I asked, slightly breathing heavily. He didn't say anything, but I could tell that he was in the same condition as me, since I could see that he was breathing harder than before.

He straightened up and sheathed his sword and just stood there. "What, we're just...getting..." My vision was getting blurry, and my body started to loose its feeling. I stumbled forward and pointed my fingers at him. "You...piece of...shit..." I fell on my side, unable to move.

He walked over to me and kicked me onto my back so I faced the sky. He knelt down next to me, looking me in the face. "If I had it my way, you'd be dead right now." His voice was familiar, but I couldn't tell who it was.

He brought his finger to the side of his head. "Package secured. Requesting pickup." He stayed still for a couple seconds. "Copy that. Crimson out." He stood up and rolled his head on his shoulders. "At least I get to do this." He then stomped me in the face, sending me to an unwanted sleep.

ELSEWHERE

A man sat hunched over a body on a conveyer table, poking and prodded its innards with an assortment of tools at his disposal. "Bah, another failure." He said with frustration. He pressed a button on a speaker next to him. "Bring in the next subject."

The body rolled out of the room on the conveyer through a hole in the wall, and on the opposite side of the room, another body rolled in, this one very much alive, and equally afraid. The person could not speak, for there mouth was covered, and he could not run, for his arms and legs were strapped down to the table.

"Hello there!" He said with a cold smile. "Let's see what we got here, shall we?" A scanner came up and examined the body. A screen lit up from across the table, showing the one on the tables physical features. "Hm. Male, late thirties, 5'7, reasonable fitness condition..." He man lit up happily. "And no signs of disease or viruse! Splendid!"

He pressed another button, and a assortment of robotic arms came down from the ceiling, each with their own tool to aid the man. He grabbed a syringe and squirted a blackish, red liquid out. "This won't be painless." He injected into the mans arm, and soon after the man started to thrash about, screaming through the silencer on his mouth. "Yes, yes I know it hurts. But trust me, it'll be better soon." He injected him with another needle, this one with a glowing green liquid.

Soon after that, the man was unconscious on the table. "Patient stabilized on the table. Proceeding with test." He mumbled to himself. He pressed some more buttons, and the arms cane to life, working on the man.

They sliced him open, and held the insertion open for the man.

"_You are losing time."_

That voice, that horrid voice, always bantering him about his work, stressing him out. But all is worth it for the reward he was promised if he succeeds.

"I can't help it! These...beasts are not compatible! He can never be replaced!" He angrily yelled in a whisper.

A sudden headache came over him. "Do NOT talk to me like that, you worm. You know what you agreed too. Or do I need to demonstrate the consequence again?"

The man keeled over in pain, holding his head as a high pitch ringing sounded off in his head.

He looked at his hands, and his vains turned black as they contained his misery. The pain subsided, and he was left panting on the ground.

"_That should motivate you further."_

The voice disappeared, and the man stood back up and looked at the monitor.

The patient died during that incident, and he was overwhelmed with rage. He grabbed the nearest thing, a rolling table, and smashed it on the body, leaving a bloody mess.

He continued to do so until the body on the table was nothing more but a pile of meat. The man leaned on both hands on the table and rubbed his face, smearing blood on it. He looked down at his clothes and sighed.

"Gotta clean this up." The door behind him opened, and he turned to see who it was. "Ah, Leonardo, how may I help you?" He asked with a smile. "Hello Turons. We got him."

Turons, the head of the GGP blinked a couple times before responding. "You mean...001 is back in containment?" He asked with a slight laugh. Leonardo nodded.

A wave if giddiness came over Turons, make laugh like he got a wonderful gift. "Yes! Excellent!" His laugh became almost maniacal. "The reward, and my research are both in reach!" He mumbled to himself. He grinned at Leonardo.

"Let's have a talk with him then, shall we?"

Hey, blaze here. Just wanted to say that I am terribly sorry about the lack of postes over this extended period of time. Things came up, preventing me from righting, and if that wasn't bad enough, I came down with a serious case of wrighters block. My mind kept thinking of ways on how this fiction will end (yes, it's not a forever lasting story.) and I was also trying not to rush the story, while not trying to drag it on pointlessly. So again, sorry, and I hope that this will make it up to you guys. Blaze out.


	21. Chapter 19- Rescue

When I woke up and saw the situation I was in, I was immediately annoying. Well, annoyed was putting it lightly. Really, I wanted to thrash whoever it me in this situation AGAIN.

I was once again, chained up once again, for the THIRD time. And this time, they went overboard on it. I was not chained this time, but four wires that seemed to be for picking up cargo were connected to two on wrist bracers on my arms on the walls either side of me, holding up my arms so i slumped forward. My legs were in metal holders that forced me to kneel on both legs, putting me in a submissive stance. I could feel a collar on my neck, and, by as far as I could tell, was connected to the wall behind me with some more wires.

"God...DAMMIT!" I yelled in anger. I started to pull on the cables, only to have them not even budge a bit. I tried to transform into my stage two Grimm form, but only could pull off some whisps of black smoke, and nothing more.

"Dust is magnificent, isn't it?" Called a voice from out of my line of sight.

"The combination of the right dust can create the best types of restraints..." The voice got closer, followed by the sound of footsteps. "They also work especially great on Grimm, as yourself." A pair of legs walked into my view. They bent and showed a face I long dreaded. "Isn't that right, 001?"

Turons face smiled at me, covered in smeared blood. His lab coat was splattered with it, as if someone splashed a bucket of blood and entrails onto his front. "Go fuck yourself." I spat at him, adding another fluid onto his face.

He laughed softly as he wiped it off before standing up. When he got up, he grabbed the back of my head and smashed his knee into my face. "I will not tolerate that kind of behavior, 001." He said with a cold smile. I spat some blood onto the ground. "What, that all you got?" He sneered and turned away.

"You've grown last time we met. When I found you, you were a reckless, ignorant brat." He turned to me. "But now, you are still a ignorant brat, only you got some weapons under your belt." I grinned. "Want me to show them?" He laughed and pulled out a trigger. He pressed it and I felt jolts of electricity course through me, rendering me of speaking.

"Yes, but not on me, but those who are against me." I laughed mockingly at him. "Oh yeah, like I'm gonna go do that shit." He walked towards me and kneeled infront of me. "Oh not willingly you are." He pulled the trigger again, and shocks coursed through me, make me yell in pain.

ELSEWHERE

"It's been a couple of days, but we managed to find Joseph's whereabouts thanks to some people on the inside of the white fang." Ozpin told team RWBY and JNPR in his office infront of a screen with the map of remnant on it, which had a blinking marker on a spot far out in the wilderness. "He's in a white fang research facility that has, from what we've gathered, has been running tests and experiments on human and faunes alike.

Team RWBY and JNPR had a mixture of shock, horror, and anger on their faces, mumbleing about Joseph's possible situation. except for blake, who had a look of pure rage on her face. "He's there, huh?" She growled in her head. "It's heavily guarded, so you will face a tough resistance as you storm the place." He said as he pressed some buttons on a keypad on his desk, showing sky view shots of the base, revealing multiple sets of white fang troops and other things of military grade equipment.

"Hm. Seems they buffed defenses." Mumbled blake. "Do we have enough to get in?" Asked Pyrrha. Ozpin sat down at his desk and folded his hands. "That, I do not know. Hunters and huntresses of your current abilities will have a difficult time." Blakd slammed her hands down on the desk angrily. "What, you suggesting that we give up!?" She said through clenched teeth.

"That is not what I mean." He said sternly, pointing a finger at blake before taking a breath. "He is a student of this academy, and I intend do get him back safely." I knock came from the door. They all turned to find a boy with green, spiked hair at the entrance.

"Hello there. My i come in?" He asked, his voice having a odd accent. Ozpin opened his hand and motioned him in. "Be my guess, mr..." The boy walked in. "Julian Court, leader of team JAGD."

Ozpin raised a brow at him. "Well, Julian, why do you want to see me?" Julian smiled. "I want to assist you guys in getting Joseph back". They had a look of confusion on their faces. "Why so?" Asked ozpin, leaning in. "Joseph saved one of my teammates hide. Saved him from a bad beating from some jerks, so I'd like to repay him." He said as he shifted his weight from leg to leg.

"And how can you help in this operation?" Asked Ozpin. Julian smiled. "I'm well acquainted in break and entry, don't ask how. My teammate Alex is very good with crowd control. Garris, who by the way, was the one Joseph helped, is amazing in anything that involves a computer or stealth. And lastly, Derek, who can shoot off the wings of a fruit fly from a mile away and keep it alive." Ozpin Hmmed in thought.

"And your sure your teams up for this?"

"I never go ahead with this kind of stuff without first consulting with my team."

"This will be a very dangerous mission."

"I didn't come to beacon to be all safe and sound."

Ozpin smiled softly. "Then you may join the operation."

ONE HOUR LATER

"Here they come." Said Ruby, perking up slightly.

Team RWBY a and JNPR stood waiting next to their Bulldogs, watching as team JAGD walked over to them.

"You just want to see their weapons, don't you?" Teased yang. "Yang!" Whined Ruby as she pouted. "Your unbelievable." Commented Weiss. Blake didn't say a word, just stared off into space.

"Hello everybody." Called Julian. He wore a green sleeveless shirt with a darker green long sleeved shirt under his sleeveless. He wore cargo pants with a camo pattern to them. Across his belt, he had an assortment of explosives, from fragmentation to different dust types. He had two pistols strapped to either side of his torso, both grey in primary colour, with green highlights.

"I'd like you to meet my team. This is Alex..." He motioned his hand, some of their surprise, to a girl that was fairly short, maybe smaller than RWBY by a couple of inches. Her hair was light brown, and her eyes were dark brown with a bored look to them. She dressed in a silver combat jumpsuit, with metal plating on her shoulders and chest. She had combat boots, wrist guards, and a line shotgun shells from her right shoulder down to her left hip. On her back, you could see the leather hilt of a double edged blue and silver broadsword.

"How you all doin?" She said, not before examining every person in front of her. "She's rough around the edges, but she's our little-" Julian didn't finish before Alex grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down to her eye level. "Finish that sentence, and so help me, I'll rip off your d-" she didn't finish when another of them stepped in between the two.

"Ok then! Hello everyone, I'm the one who keeps them from murdering each other, also known as Derek."

He had one strip of black hair about six inches in width going from the back of his head to where his hairline, with his eyes being dark blue. He wore a headset that had one swivel part that goes over his right eye. It had three scopes on it, and what seemed to be a small light for a laser designator. He had a black skintight t-shirt with black baggy jeans. He had magazines on his hip and front, held on by leather straps as black as his clothes, so it looked like they were connected to nothing. Slung across his back was a great sword, held diagonally so it didn't scrape the ground. It was black in colour with white on the edges of the blade, and seemed to be segmented from the bottom of the blade all the way to the top. It had a trigger on the hilt, which led to think what the trigger did in that mode. "And this-" he grabbed another one of them, which was known as Garris, since no one was left to introduce. "Is Garris, our loner of the group and my little bro."

Garris shot him a dirty look. "We're the same age." looking back at the two teams, he gave a small hello With a wave of his hand. From what little hair that was shown, it was determined that he had light brown hair with green eyes, his skin tanned as well, so it was given that he wasn't born in vale, or raised there that long. He wore a dark grey hoodie that covered his face when he looked down, with a brown trench coat over top of that. He wore dark blue jeans with runners. He carried a black metal box with clips on it over his shoulder, and had a pistol holstered at his side. What got Blakes attention was the two small bulges that moved slightly every once in a while. "So he's a faunes." She thought to herself.

Team RWBY and JNPR introduced themselves to them, saying their hellos and thank yous for helping them. "It's nothing really. Like I said, I owe him." Julian said with a laugh.

Ruby then spotted Derek's weapon and went wide eyed. Where she stood before was a cloud of roses. She appeared squealing happily as she examined Derek's weapon in her hands, who starts grabbing at where it was.

"This weapons base design is the same as mine!" She flicked a switch on it and the blade splitting in two through the center and rotated 90°, a scope popping out at the top and the handle jutting out, becoming the trigger. Ruby aimed down the scope and looked around. "It even has a variable zoom." She said with awe.

Derek laughed softly as he plucked it from Ruby's hands. "That's only half of what this can do." Ruby's eyes went even wider, if that was possible. "It can do more!?" He changed it back into its blade form and holstered it. "Yeah. I kinda overdid it on the design. My funding got cut short when I wanted to add a small railgun to it." He said as he rubbed the back of his head.

The two started chatting about weapon upgrades and their usefulness.

"Great. He's weapon nerding out again." Said Garris with a sigh. Yang laughed in response. "He's like my sister. Though personality wise, not so much." She looked back at Garris. "Why does he call you little bro." He sighed. "He was born two months ahead of me, so he uses that against me. And as you can tell, we're really step brothers."

Yang raised a brow. "Something happen?" He shook his head. "I really don't want to talk about it." Yangs expression softened, a sad look coming over her face. "Oh. Well ok, I understand." They stood in silence, watching their respective siblings chat about.

"Rubys my half sister, if you can believe it." Garris laughed softly. "There's some resemblance in you two." Yang raised an eyebrow. "Like what?" He thought for a moment. "You two have a determined look in your eyes, like your always getting a job done to the best of your abilities." Yang laughed. "We do, huh?"

The two started to chat about other matters, trying to keep off of family matters. Then they heard Julian call from behind. "Just got word that we can go whenever we're ready. You guys ready?" Derek and Garris nodded and said goodbye to Ruby and Yang.

"See you on the other side!" Called Derek.

"Good luck on your part." Called Garris.

They boarded into the airship and Julian walked up to yang. "How'd you do it?"

Yang blinked a couple times. "Excuse me?"

"That was the longest I've seen the guy have a steady conversation with someone. What are you, a miracle worker?" Yang crossed her arms and threw her head back with a laugh. "You don't need to be a miracle worker when you're me." He nodded slowly, giving a light hmm, then stepped into the airship. Team RWBY and JNPR followed suit, boarding their own airships. The engines came to life, and they flew towards the compound.

TEAM JAGD POV

"Alright, we'll be at the drop point in five minutes." Said Julian, standing next to the entrance, rolling a bomb in his hand while looking at his team. "It's a half mile from the compound, but it's the safest distance without getting blown out of the sky." They nodded in response.

"Let's go over this again. We're gonna break through the western wall, and it's not gonna be easy. Derek, Alex, you two are gonna deal with oncoming foot soldiers." Derek nodded with a grin, while Alex looked up bored, nodded, then slouched back.

"Garris, you deal with anything with a CPU or a computer in it." Garris acknowledged him by placing his hand on his metal box, a slight smile shown on his face.

"I'll handle anything that's needs a little...boom, and other things of the sort." He said, throwing his bomb into the air and catching it in the other. "Any questions?" Alex raised her hand. "Yes Alex?"

She got up and folded her arms. "Say this all goes to shit, what's the backup?" Julian grew a sad smile on his face and pulled out a silver ball, about the size of a small rock, out of his pocket. "If there's no other options, I'll use this to get you guys out of there." Alex narrowed her eyes and Derek looked at the ball confused, while Garris face turned into a grimace. "It won't come to that." He said darkly.

Julian laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "Don't worry you guys, you'll get to see your sweethearts in the end of this." Derek went wide eyed and started to stutter, while Garris snickered at his brother. " Garris, I saw you getting friendly with that blonde one from team RWBY, don't you hide it." Garris's face turned a slight red, pulling over his hood to cover his face, but still showing a slight smile.

A alarm went off, and the hanged door opened. "Alright, this is our stop! Grab your landing gear and check your comms!" Yelled Julian over the howling wind. They each grabbed a small pack with thrusters pointing downwards and strapped them on, then tapped their right ears, making sure they were on the same channel. "On my mark!"

"Three!" Alex cracked her knuckles.

"Two!" Derek hopped on the balls of his feet.

"One!" Garris crouched slightly lower, ready to jump.

"Jump!" All four of them leaped out of the airship, free falling towards the ground. The clouds covered their vision of the ground, blinding them. When they broke through, they were immediately having gunfire fly past them.

"I thought you said that we were outside their range of fire!" Yelled Alex angrily over the comm.

"nothing is perfect!" Yelled back Julian.

Derek brought out his weapon in rifle mode, and started picking off rounds that came in their general area, but not all of them. "Unless I can hit all of these, we aren't gonna make it!"

"I got this!" Called out Julian as he pulled out a grey sphere about the size of a fist with a blinking light on top of it with a ring of lights around the center. He threw it, and when it was in the center of them, a giant glowing sphere of light expanded from it.

"Get near the center!" He called out. They moved themselves into the middle of it, and the incoming rounds that smashed into it bounced off into different directions. "It's got fifteen seconds before it goes out. Hopefully, we'll be near landing by then.

As he said that, Garris noticed a light glowing continuously brighter as he watched it. "I wouldn't count on it!" He called to them. The rest of them saw what he was talking about.

"Son of a-"

"Motherfu-"

"What the f-"

Before they could finish, a massive laser smashed into the side of the protective bubble, making cracks appear.

"Fifty feet!" Yelled Julian.

Parts of the bubble disappeared, more cracks showing.

"Twenty five!"

The shield broke down.

"Now!" They used the packs on their backs to jet themselves downwards before the laser could hit them, then immediately spun and blasted up, slowing their descent.

They landed in a crouch roll, immediately pulling out their weapons as they landed. They landed in a dense forest area. "Any sign of them?" Whispered julian. Garris looked through his rifles scope, scanning the area. "Not that I can see."

Garris took of his hood, revealing his faunes heritage, and listened. "I wouldn't be so sure." He said as he pointed into the woods in front of him while pulling out his pistol. They took cover behind some trees, readying their weapons. "Wait for it..." Whispered Julian.

The sound of branches cracking and some voices could be heard coming towards their direction.

"Man, fuck this forest."

"Lighten up man, what it ever do to you?"

"It's creepy as shit, that's what it's doing to me."

"Quit your bitching Frank. You didn't sign up for that."

"I signed up for actual fighting, not this shit."

Julian peeked over, then quickly brought his head back. He made a sign with his hand, showing that there was three of them. They readied their weapons, but Julian gave them the sign to hold.

He grabbed a bomb, this one having a glass shell, so you can see smoke swirling inside of it. He gave them a no kill sign, and threw It at the trio. It exploded, making them yell in surprise before coughing uncontrollably.

"The fuck -cough- is this?!"

"How -cough- should I know!?"

"Fuck these -cough- woods!"

Team JAGD advanced on them, subduing them. Garris smacked one on the nose with the butt of his pistol, then kicking him in the chest. When the man was on the ground, he kept a foot in his chest and pointed his gun at the mans head.

Derek rolled past the other guy and kicked the man's legs from out of underneath him, then raising a heel and bringing it down on his chest. He then sprung up and placed the tip of his sword hovering above the man's chest.

Alex punched the last guy in the stomach, then brought her knee up to his face. She then charged him and shoulder bashed him against a tree, making him do a bit of a bounce off the tree. He landed on his front, and she then jumped onto his back and pulled his head back, placing her sword against his neck.

"Alright then." Said Julian as he knelt down In front of the one held by Alex. "You a patrol group or something, cause your real ill equipped for battle." The man growled in anger. "Let me go, and I'll show you ill equipped." Julian nodded. "Knock them out."

Garris stomped his mans face, breaking his nose and knocking him out. Derek booted his mans head, causing possible head trauma. Then Alex slammed her mans head against the ground, burying his face into the dirt.

"Well, I'd say that they won't be waking up anytime soon." He joked. They snickered slightly. "Well, let's get going then." He said as he dropped a blue ball on the ground near the three white fang soldiers. "This'll repel the Grimm."

After some minutes of running through the for forest, they found the western wall of the facility, which stood a good fifteen feet above them.

"This is too easy. Where's the defences?" Asked Alex, hefting her sword.

"Not sure. Garris?" Asked Julian.

Garris swivelled his ears around, listening.

"Nothing, and that's even more disturbing. There's no noise besides the regular sounds of woodland creatures in the forest." Derek checked the forest line with his headgears multiple sights.

"He's right. I'm reading no abnormal heat signatures or electric currents." Julian sighed.

"Let's carry on with this plan then." He pulled out what looked like a landmine with metal claws on it. He latched it onto the wall and pressed into the centre of it, making it beep slowly. "Stand back."

They all moved back about ten feet as it beeped faster to the point it was one long beep. The seemed to explode inwards, sucking everything outward into the spot in the wall, and out the other end, so it looked like an invisible force just punched through the wall. "Air compression breach mines. Gotta love them." Said Julian with a smile.

They entered through the hole, Derek and Garris first with their weapons ready to fire, and then Julian, with Alex watching the rear. "Anything yet?" Asked Julian to Garris. He listened again.

"No...wait. Yes, I hear something." He listened some more, then his went flat and he pointed his gun at the facility. "They're coming." They all turned towards the facility and got into a fighting stance.

A pair of doors opened, big enough to let in heavy ground force, and two armoured cars with turrets drove out, immediately shooting the four. All of them but Alex ran to cover.

She smirked as they shot at her. "Guess I can go loud." She twirled her sword, and it collapsed on itself, then reassembling into a pump shotgun. She ran towards one of the cars, shooting as she did so, and it drove strait at her, planning to run her down.

She took a leap onto the hood as it got close, then flipped over car, shooting the gunner as she finished the flip and landed on the gunner. She pushed the handle up, bending the support so it aimed at the driver, and shot him point blank. The car then crashed into the wall for the lack of a working driver, flinging her into the wall, where she rolled up it, then jumping off of it onto the ground, the wreckage behind her.

The next car spun around and drove strait as her as well. The gunner put up a blast shield, protecting himself from her attack. She had other strategies though. As it shot at her, she dived to the side towards the car, making it drive past her. Just before it could totally past her, her hand glowed like it was rock with cracks that had fire leaking out, and grabbed the rear end of the side of the car, causing it to jolt to the side. This caused the driver to be right next to her, not moving. She merely stuck her gun into the window and pulled the trigger. The car drove aimlessly towards the hole in the wall. The car was to big, so the gunner didn't make it through, much to his demise.

She turned to her team and raised a brow. "What? Make me do all the work?"

"Last time we helped you, you got pissed, saying that we ruined the fun." Countered Derek. She rolled her eyes. She hefted her shotgun over her shoulder. "Whatever. The doors open." Julian grinned and walked toward the doors. "Then let's get moving. Times of the essence."

They met opposition as they pushed through the building. "How's that door coming along Garris!?" Yelled Julian as he shot with his pistols from behind cover at advancing white fang soldiers. "I'm working on it, just give me a minute!" He yelled back angrily.

"Well hurry it up, cause I don't think those two are gonna last any longer."

Derek and Alex were on the otherside of the make barricade, fighting off white fang soldiers.

Alex parried strikes and slashed at the enemy, switching her sword to its shotgun form when she needed to create breathing space.

Derek, however, got surrounded by white fang soldiers, all armed with swords. "Heh. Seems I got to use it." He twirled his sword over his head, stopping it infront of him in a defensive stance. He pulled the trigger on his hilt, and the blade segmented, turning into a sword whip. He's spun and slashed, sending the surrounding forces flying as they got hit by the sword. "Any time now!" He yelled over his shoulder.

"Almost...there! Get in!" Yelled Garris as the door opened. Julian stood at the entrance way, shooting white fang soldiers that rushed at them. "Let's go, I plan on not dying here!" Alex took a couple more shots at the white fang, then turned and dove through the entrance. Derek rushed through the door and slid onto his stomach, facing the doorway and shot at incoming forces. Garris tapped some buttons on the panel on there side, and the door closed. Julian then place a glowing white dust bomb on the door and shot it, freezing the door.

"Dry ice. Gonna be a while until they get through that." He said with a smirk. They turned around and found themselves in a hallway leading to another door.

"You think this is it?" Asked Alex, crossing her arms. Julian pulled out his scroll and brought up a map of the complex.

"It should be." They loaded their weapons. "Well, let's get going."

They got to the door. Garris went to open it, but it opened itself. "Alright. This is a trap." He said bluntly. "No shit." Said Derek as he scanned the room. The room was dark, the only light source being the doorway. "Getting only one life signature In there. Gotta be him."

They slowly made their way to Joseph, watching for any signs of a trap. They got to him, and he was not looking good.

He had scorch marks around his neck area, with bruises along his arms. His clothes were tattered and burned, like he jumped into multiple explosions. He was unconscious as well, giving the look of death to him.

"Damn. He looks like shit." Commented Derek.

"he doesn't even look alive." Commented Alex as well.

"He is, but not in good condition." Said Garris as he walked over to him. He knelt down next to him and checked him over.

"Yes, he's not really doing all that we'll right now." Said a voice from somewhere in the room.

They raised their weapons in defence, looking all around them. "Who's there!?" Yelled Julian. Lights came on from the ceiling, illuminating the room, which was bigger than they thought. "It's a freakin arena." Mumble Derek.

"Honestly, I thought that all girl team would make it here first, but I guess I was wrong." Said the voice, which was coming from a pair of speakers In each corner I'm the rooms ceiling.

"Uh...Julian?" Called Garris as he inspected Joseph more.

"What's with letting us in so easy, huh? What more you gonna throw at us?" Yelled Julian to a pair of speakers.

"Julian?"

"Why, I'll let you have your friend back."

"JULIAN?"

"What?"

"JULIAN!"

Julian turned around to Garris. "What is it?" He walked over to Garris to see what he was talking about. "Look at this." Garris pointed at the back of Joseph's neck. "The shit?"

There was a metal plate embedded into the back of his neck, with three little green lights in a row. As they watched, from the left to the right, the lights turned yellow. When they did, his body started twitching.

"You can have him back, if you a survive him." The lights turned red, and Joseph rolled onto his back, letting out a blood curdling scream of pain, making Derek and Julian jump back. black smoke erupting from his eyes, mouth, and nose as he yelled.

"001..." The voice paused. "Kill." Joseph stopped screaming, and the black smoke enveloped his body. He got up as a mass of churning black smoke in the vague shape of a human, his back to team JAGD.

"Joseph?" Called Garris. Joseph slowly turned around the smoke morphing and shaping as he did. The smoke formed multiple things, all mismatched compared to the other. When it dissipated, they had a look of horror on their faces.

Joseph's left arm was clawed, but it also had boney spikes erupting all the way up and down his arm, shaking slightly as if a gentle breeze was going across the field. His right arm was bulky a built, bone plating covering the entirety of it like a thick armour on an already massive arm. His chest was both human and Grimm, like parts and pieces of him and a Grimm were merged together, with bone spikes and plates on the Grimm parts, some overlapping onto the human parts, protecting them. His legs were wolfish, like a dog standing on its hind legs. He had a tail that had a jagged bone blade at the end, with spines leading up the centre of his back unevenly. His head was the most deformed of all. Part of it was human, that being the top left corner of his face, with black smoke swirling in his eyes and canines for teeth. The rest of his face was what seemed like a mixture of different Grimm, with a bone mask of a Beowulf covering its top left part, the red eye burning bright, and a Ursas bottom jaw, with pincers on the bottom jaw pointing upwards slightly into the mouth, clicking every couple seconds. He threw his head back and roared, causing the team to cover their ears.

"Well, shit." Said Julian as he backed up slowly.

"What's the plan?" Asked Alex as she loaded her shot gun.

Joseph charged them on all fours, snarling and clicking as he came at them.

"Run." They didn't argued as they bolted out the door they entered, Joseph hot on their tail.


	22. Chapter 20- The Slaying

TEAM RWBY POV

They took out the last white fang soldier in the courtyard.

"That's the last of them." Said yang as she dusted off hands. Ruby hefted her scythe onto her shoulder. "Yeah, but it's strange. There's not as much as you'd think there would be here."

Weiss nodded. "Your right. It's like they were moving when we got here."

"That's exactly what they were doing."

They all turned to Blake, who was looking down angrily, her hands clenched in fists. "They got locations all over the land. When ones compromised, they move on to another location. Joseph could have already been relocated..."

Yang came up to her and shook her shoulder. "Hey, we don't know that. We haven't checked the entire place yet." Ruby stepped in. "Yeah. Besides, all three teams agreed to call one another if they found something.

Rubys scroll went off, showing a request for a group chat with her and Jaune from Julian. "See? They might have found him." Ruby said with a smile. She answered the scroll. "Hello?"

"Help us!" Yelled Julian from the other end, making ruby hold the scroll at a distance.

"What is it, what's happening?" Said Jaune from his end.

"Did you guys find Joseph?" Asked ruby with worry.

"Oh we found him alright. What's your location ruby?"

"Southern courtyard, why?"

"Great. Jaune, get your team there fast as possible."

"Why, what's happening?" Asked Jaune, slightly panicked.

"We found him."

He hung up, and the faint sound of a roar could be heard coming from the doorway on the opposite side of the courtyard. They turned to it, and team JAGD ran through, covered in cuts and bruises.

"What happened!?" Asked ruby, panic in her voice. The team ran up to them and pointed their guns at the doorway. "They did something to him."

Blake entered now, fear creeping into her voice. "What do you mean, they DID something to him?" A roar, much closer this time, could be heard.

"How should I know!? All I'm saying is that he's fucking nuts right now." His scroll went off. "Yeah? Alright, thanks." He turned his scroll off and put it away. "That was Jaune, they said something's coming our way.

A more audible roar, shaking the earth, came from the doorway. Team JAGD loaded their weapons. "You guys should too. A fights coming."

Much to their dislike, they loaded their weapons, not entirely sure what's coming. Loaded crashes could be heard, like the sound of foundations being destroyed. Then it went silent.

"What? He stopped." Asked Julian. Blake slowly turned to the wall to he right, hearing a low growl of something big. "Move it!" Yelled garris as he ran to the opposite wall. He must of heard it too. Just then, something bursted through the wall, clouded by dust and debris.

Team JAGD immediately started shooting it, getting a thunderous roar from the shape. The shape swiped its left arm, and white bone spike flew at them like a storm of spears.

Weiss summoned a defensive glyph to stop the onslaught. It was an effort, because when it finished, Weiss was left staggering and breathing heavy. The beast walked out of the smoke and dust, and when all of team RWBY saw it, their breath was caught in their throats.

"J-Joseph?" Blake stuttered, shaking with fear. The beast growled, it's human part of its face contorted into a snarl. The pincers on its bottom jaw snapped and clicked as its teeth teeth gnashed. It brought up its right arm, which was bulging with unnatural muscle, and smashed it down, shattering the earth and sending a fissure snaking towards the group.

The group dodge out of the way, but stumbled as the shock of the blast still resonated in the ground. "What did they do?!" Yelled Weiss as she got her footing. "Something in the back of his neck! Manipulating him or something!" Yelled garris as he dived over a tail swipe from the beast.

"How do we stop it!?" Yelled ruby as she shot at the beast, only for her rounds to ricochet of its armour plating. "I got an Idea, but it's gonna leave some...scarring." Said garris with uneasiness in his voice.

"I don't care if we got to strangle him with his own tail, just stop him!" Yelled Alex, making Blake give her a dirty look. "If you end up killing him, I swear-" yang butted in. "We're not killing him, alright? We are gonna save him." Blake glared at Alex, then turned her attention back at the beast.

It was in a battle with Ruby, Weiss, Derek, and Julian. And they were losing. Derek's sword segmented into a sword whip and wrapped around the beasts spiked arm. It grabbed the blade and yanked on it, making Derek fly towards it, were it then swatted him away with its hammer arm, making him go smashing into the wall of the other side of the courtyard.

Weiss and Ruby fighted in coordination, ruby dashing in to slash at its legs and weiss darting in and out, stabbing at its upper half. But the beast didn't fall to these. Its tail deflected and struck at Ruby every time she got close. It swiped at her legs and tripped her, where it then wrapped around her waist and lifted her up, making her drop her scythe. When weiss came in to strike again, the beast turned towards her and roared, making her cover her ears. It caught her in its spiked arms hand, cutting her as it did so. With another roar, it threw weiss away from it, making her bounce off the ground before hitting another wall. Ruby was flung up into air and then batted away by its tail, making her crater into the ground.

"RUBY, WEISS!" Yelled yang as she charged the beast, her eyes burning like cinders, her hair igniting like a fire. She ran and jumped up, smashing the beast in the jaw, making it stagger back.

It roared furiously, swinging its spiked arm at her. She ducked under it and made quick jabs at its side. It grabbed at her, but she nimbly dodged it and went for a uppercut. Her fist connected, but just as quick, the pincers on its lower jaw hooked and grabbed her arm, cutting her arm as it trapped her. She repeatedly smashed the beasts face with her other arm, but was thrown away when it whipped its head to the side. She landed on her feet and skidded to a halt, her arm hanging at her side numbly.

"What...I can't feel..." She looked up at the beast, and saw a yellowish liquid drip from its pincers. She smirked. "You play dirty." She heard Blake yelling her name to her side. She turned and found Blake running to her. "Are you nuts!? You could've been killed!" Yang smirked. "But I didn't. Besides, I helped. Look." She pointed at the beast, and Blake saw what she was talking about.

The beasts face was badly damaged, it's skull face cracked, leaving the red eye dim, and the more human one swollen. It rotated its head to the side, trying to get a good sight on its targets. It was semi blind.

Another pair of doors bursted open, team JNPR running through with their weapons drawn. "Guys we're he-" Jaune stopped at the carnage that laid before him. "In the name of dust, what happened?" He and his team saw the devastation of the scene.

The beast seemed to sense their presence, because it turned to look at them, although it's sight was only half as good. The team finally saw it, and gasped in shock. The beast then huffed and ran on all fours to the wall of the courtyard and climbed out.

"We gotta get him!" Yang said, about to run after it. Blake then caught her shoulder. "No, I'll get him."

"But-"

"You're in no condition to fight, yang."

"But I can-"

"Stay here and help Ruby and weiss. They're gonna need help."

She turned to team JNPR. "Can you guys help her as well?" Still in shock, Jaune nodded, partially because of the look in her eyes, saying that she will have none of it.

"Wait!" Yelled garris from behind. She turned to find him holding what looked like a small battery. "You need to short circuit the transmitter in Joseph's neck. The only danger is that it could cause neural damage to his brain." He took blakes weapon and attached the battery to her sword, which now produced an electric wave around it.

She sheathed her blade and nodded. "Thank you." He smiled back. "All I can do to help." Blake then ran into the direction it went, tracking it.

The trail ended a quarter a mile outside the defensive wall of the facility. She found the beast and hid in a nearby bush, and found it...eating other Grimm, or that's what it looked like. The dark essence that Grimm, a Beowolf turn into when they died, it sucked it in like a vacuum, it's mouth unhinged and opened wide. As she watched, she saw that the more human parts of it started to disappear behind Grimm features, the grim mask slowly creeping over the skin.

When it was done, the Grimm mask covered a good portion of the human side of its face, leaving only the eye.

Blake snuck around to get a better angle of the back of the neck, getting into its blind spot. She climbed a tree behind it, getting into a striking position. She leapt down, and struck the metal plate in the neck, making the beast throw her off and keel over in pain, it's hands hovering above the blade.

It held its head, shaking it, and started to attack blindly in all directions. It gave one last roar, which faded into a whimper, and collapsed onto its side, unmoving.

Blake walked up to it, it's body turned completely, with black smoke coming off of it. As she watched, it's body grew smaller and smaller until it was the size of a man. Her man. She knelt down and touched the figures face, the last of the black seeping into Joseph's skin, revealing tattered clothing and circular scars. His breath was soft and ragged, his body trembling slightly. Blake looked at where she stabbed him and saw the plate split in two, sparks coming out of it.

Then Blake bursted into tears, burying her head into his chest as she knelt. She stayed like this until the rest came for her.


	23. Chapter 21- The Awakening

I woke up in panic, eyes blinded by light.

I couldn't move very well, like I was made of stone. I couldn't yell either, only managing shirt panicked breaths. I blinked a couple times, gaining a more clear vision.

I found myself lying in some bed, a beeping coming from somewhere behind my head. I say up, and I felt my limbs crack, like I haven't moved in...ever. Looking around, I noticed that I was in some Med bay, with a window looking into the outside.

I looked at my arms, and pads with wires up and down my arms. Black electricity seemed to course from my body, up the wires, and into some glass cylinder, where it sparked around until dissipated into nothing. I swiped them off, and the black electricity sparked along my body for a second before stopping.

I felt at my head, and found more of them, and that my hair was longer than before. I ripped them off, and beeping started to go off behind me. I didn't care. I had to go. Had to find them. Find her.

I got out of the bed, but fell to my knees. I climbed back up using the bed, and grabbed a nearby blood bag stand and used it as a walking stick. I walked to the door, my legs still feeling numb, and the door opened.

A nurse looking lady came through, her eyes widening as she saw me. She took a couple steps back before turning and sprinting off. I looked down and sighed in relief, since I had some loose fitting blue cloth like clothing on instead of that one piece suit.

I walked through the door and found a office space, with one desk and chairs lining the wall, with one door on the opposite side of the room of the desk.

I walked towards the door and opened it into a massive hallway. "Beacon..." I muttered. I walked the hallways, and I noticed something. "No ones here..." The hallways were desolate, with no one in sight.

I took a couple more steps before the edge of my vision had black tendril shapes moving around, with the rest turning dark. My head started to hurt, and I keeled over. I then I fell forwards onto my front, feeling weightless for a second.

I grabbed the stand and got up, though finding that my legs had enough feeling that walking was manageable, I left it at the wall and continued walking.

I felt both weak and strong, like I could crush anything but I would also shatter like broken glass. The feeling came over me again, and I managed not to fall over. I looked at my hands, and they seemed to flicker, switching from my hands to a Grimms. I blinked a couple times and it stopped, but it still left me feeling cautious.

"What...happened to me?" I thought, starting to worry. I willed them to turn into their Grimm forms and they obeyed, but they had a black aura to them, like they had life themselves. I quickly turned them back and dismissed that thought. "I'm in control. I will not be consumed." I said a couple times in my head for reassurance.

I continued to walk until I got to the cafeteria, and I looked inside. "Desolate..." I murmured. I checked the clock on the wall and it was high noon, which was when lunch started. Not even the sounds of people getting to lunch could be heard. Getting slightly more worried, I moved as fast as I could to the one place I could think of that could have someone.

I got to my dorm rooms door and went to knock, but stopped. "What has happened? Where is everyone? Is this some type of purgatory, or hell?" Thoughts ran through my mind, all leading to worse case scenarios. I shook my head and cleared my thoughts. "Nothing's going to happen. You're fine, and do is the rest of your team." I knocked on the door, waiting for an answer.

The sound of someone getting out of bed could be heard from the other side, followed by the sound of stumbling and tired groaning. The door opened slowly, and I was met with a head of messy black hair. Amber eyes peered out in crescent slits, unfocused as since the person was just waking up.

"Mmm...hello?" Asked Blake tiredly, swaying as she stood. I smiled crossed my arms. "Is this a bad time, cause I can come back later." I said with a laugh.

Her face went slack and she rubbed her eyes. She looked at me again, this time her eyes wide open, her mouth hung open as well.

Next thing I knew, I was on the ground with her arms wrapped around me, squeezing me tightly. "Ow, Blake, I'm still kinda stiff..." I said, though I didn't really want her to get off.

She sat up on my stomach, and she had a smile on her face, her eyes tearing up. "Uh, how long was I-hmp!"

She didn't let me finish by kissing me, which I returned a second later. We sat like that for a minute, before she broke away and hugged me again, burying her face into the crook of my neck.

She started to cry softly, so i started to rub her back and reassure her. "Shh. Hey, it's alright. I'm here." I spoke softly.

She looked up, her eyes still watery but smiling. "I missed you." I smiled and kissed her. "I couldn't have been out for that long."

Her face melted slightly, her smile turning downwards. "Joseph, you were unconscious for a year. You were in a coma."

I froze, my blood turning cold. "Oh Blake, I...I'm so sorry...what...what happened to me?" I said, holding her close.

"You don't remember?" I shook my head. "No. It's...fuzzy. I do remember-" my head started to feel like it was splitting, images flashing in my eyes.

I cried out in pain as I watched chopped up scenes of a fight from the view of something. It chased four people unknown to me through some hallways, breaking through pillars and other things as it chased them, roaring.

The image then cut the thing, which seemed to be watching what seemed to be team RWBY and JNPR, with the four it chased, from behind a set of doors, peering through a small set of windows. The next moment it let out a low growl before smashing through, engaging the twelve of them.

The image then cut again, were I saw the thing hold Weiss in a massive hand before throwing her away, making her bounce away on the ground like a rag doll. It threw its head back, letting out a roar. Faint yelling could be heard from somewhere off to the side, but I could not see who it came from.

These images and more kept showing themselves to me, before one last one showed itself to me.

Turrons could be seen, holding a lead pipe, dripping with blood. _"You need proper obedience, 001." _He snapped his fingers, and a piercing pain could be felt at the back of my neck, and the world turned black.

I found myself curled up on the floor, breathing heavily, letting out pained yells as I felt a pressure on my shoulder, shaking me.

"Joseph! What wrong?!" Yelled Blake in fear.

I gasped, coughing into my fist. I grabbed at the back of my neck and felt what seemed to be scarred skin in a circular patch, right below my hairline. I shuddered, realizing what I just saw.

"Blake..." I asked quietly. She moved over to my front, a worried expression plastered onto her face.

"What, what is it?" She said, her eyes darting across my body, looking for the trouble."

"What...did I do?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

She looked down sadly, gripping my hand. "You...changed. You became...something else."

"Something else..." I repeated. "What was this something else?"

She shook her head. "It wasn't human or Grimm. It fought savagely, like a nightmare. And worst of all..." Her bodies trembled, eyes tearing up. "It had...a part of your face. If it didn't...there would have been no other way to determine if it was you or not."

She started to cry silently, making my body ache. I sat up and hugged her, holding her close as she laid her head on my shoulder. She continued to speak.

"They, no, HE did something. There was a...thing in your neck, controlling you. I had to destroy it, but when I did..." She buried her face into my shoulder, letting out a sob. "You went into that coma! And for months, I could barely live with the thought that I had killed you, destroying you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

I sat there for a minute, letting her cry into my shoulder. Then I sighed. "Dammit Blake..."

She stopped crying and looked at me. I looked back with a soft smile. "You know how much extra work I got to do now to keep up in my classes?" I said with small laugh.

Her eyes narrowed with slight anger, but the edge of her mouth curled up slightly. She let out a small laugh, making me smile wider. I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against hers.

"Let's head back into the room, ok?" She nodded and we both got up. When we got into the room, I noticed some changes.

"Wow." They renovated since I was gone. The makeshift bunk beds that were there before now were replaced with actual bunk beds, though Ruby still kept a drape over her bed. A couch now occupied the room, facing a TV that hung on the wall with a small table to complete the set, placed in the area on the left of the entrance.. A desk with a computer was placed at the other side of the room on the right side. A red carpet with gold design around the edges sat between the two beds, but something was off. There was a smell that hung in the air, that I vaguely remember.

"Do I smell...dog?" I asked, nose wrinkling. Blake sighed. "Yeah. Ruby and Yangs dog Zwei stayed here for a while since their dad had to go on a trip. He kinda left an after scent since he's been gone."

I groaned. "What he do, piss in here?" She laughed. "Once, actually. Ruby forgot to take him out to do his business once, so he just picked a spot and went." I groaned. "That's just wrong."

Then a thought came to mind. "Where is everyone?" Blake shrugged. "It's summer, so Ruby, Yang and Weiss went back home until school starts again. I'm here because...well I don't exactly got a home and ozpin is letting me and any other students who either are too far or don't have a home stay here." I nodded. "You think I'd be an exception?"

"Well, you technically never HAD a home to begin with, but I think he'd let you stay." I narrowed my eyes with a smirk and pulled her close. "Pulling that card, huh?" She rolled her eyes. "Maybe I am." I smiled and kissed her forehead.

She laughed and wrapped her arms around my neck. "I've missed you..." She whispered. I hugged her back, leaning my head on top of hers. "I'm sorry for what I've done." She tightened her grip on me.

"I already forgiven you."

"But I can never forgive myself."

"There was nothing you could have done."

"But still, what I did...I question what I am. What I will do." I stroked the back of her head. "I don't want to hurt you, the team, or any of our friends. You people are the closest things I have that I can call a family."

We stood there, holding each other for a minute before She said anything. "I have faith that you won't ever go that far. And if you do..." She leaned into me, nuzzling my neck. "I know that you would come right back."

I loosened my grip as I looked down at her, my eyes wide. "You believe in me that much?" She nodded. "I believe that everyone does. You just have yourself to prove it to."

I laughed and let go. "Then I guess I got to be pretty convincing to prove it to myself." I walked over to the couch and grabbed the TVs remote off of it. "So, anything good to watch?"

We ended up spending the afternoon watching TV while lying down on the couch.

"I never really sat down and watched TV here." I said, twirling a piece of Blakes hair around my finger as she layed down on my lap. "You didn't watch TV at Rubys place?"

"Nope. I was either doing some job assigned by her dad, or the TV was raided by yang." Blake giggled. "Yeah, there's times where we had to fight her to hand over the remote."

I looked down at Blake, amused. "You fought yang?" She shrugged. "More like all three of us had to fight her simultaneously." I whistled. "And how many times did you guys succeed?" She looked up, a smirk on her face. "Every time. She's weak to certain things, which I won't tell you."

"You're cruel to me."

"I am."

I narrowed my eyes and started point at her stomachs and ribs, making her wriggle and squirm. "Hey! Stop that!" She yelled, laughing.

"Nope." I answered, a smirk on my face. In retaliation, she reached up pushed me away at my face. "Hey, watch it!"

We ended up falling onto the ground, laughing. After a moment of laughing and giggling, I found that Blake landed on top of me. "Who won in that?"

Blake smirked and sat up on my stomach and crossed her arms and legs, lifting her chin. "I think I did." Narrowing my eyes, I reached up and grabbed her, pulling her down, making her yell in surprise. I laughed when she sat back up, giving me a death stare.

"Your burning a hole in my head Blake." She groaned and laid down on top of me, letting out a small yawn. "Goodnight."

"Why am I your bed?" She opened one eye and looked up. "Punishment." She closed her eye, and her breath slowed. I sighed and laid back, knowing that I didn't have a way out of it.

After a few minutes, I heard soft but rhythmic breathing coming from Blake. "Your actually asleep." I thought, smirking. Slowly, I got up, picking her up as I did so, carrying her in my arms. When I got up, I walked over to her bed to place her down.

Then her arms moved and wrapped themselves around my neck. Not tight enough to choke me, but tight enough so that I couldn't exactly take her off without waking her.

I sighed and went to the couch and laid down, Blake sleeping on top of me still. "Honestly..." I said as I laughed softly, looking at her. Then an idea popped into my head.

"What if..." I reached my hand up to her head, towards her ears. I rubbed one softly, as if I was petting a cat, and a low but audible rubbing could be heard and felt coming from Blake.

"No way." I mouthed, trying to contain my laughter. A blissful smile came across Blakes face as she nuzzles herself into my neck. I kissed the top of her head, and laid my head back. I closed my eyes, deciding that I was goons get some sleep too.


End file.
